EL SEGUNDO — Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh called outside linebacker Khalil Mack the team’s MVP only five games into the 2024 season. Harbaugh also called Mack a phenomenal leader and person, a tone-setter, an example-setter, a humble warrior and “one of the best I have ever been around.”
In fact, it is probably foolish to argue otherwise.
After all, Mack established himself as the focal point of the Chargers’ defense almost from the moment he arrived via a trade with the Chicago Bears in the 2022 offseason, and that might never be more apparent than through the first five games of this season, with their defense the stingiest in the NFL.
The Chargers have given up only 66 points through five games, a league-low average of 13.2 points per game. This past Sunday, they came within a quarter of becoming the first team in history to shut out the Broncos in a game at Denver, but they lost their focus and their track of Bo Nix late in a 23-16 victory.
Going into the Chargers’ game Monday night against the Arizona Cardinals, Mack and his teammates are sixth in yards allowed per game (289.2), sixth in rushing yards allowed per game (97.2), eighth in passing yards allowed per game (192) and eighth in scrimmage yards per play allowed (5.15).
Mack has a team-leading 2½ sacks this season, giving him 104 in 156 career games. He has 27½ sacks over 39 contests in two-plus seasons with the Chargers. He isn’t their leading tackler, although he does have 17 tackles. Second-year linebacker Daiyan Henley has a team-leading 37 tackles.
“Khalil is that guy,” Harbaugh said Wednesday of Mack. “He is that player. He’s phenomenal to be around on a daily basis. Everything he does, it’s at the highest level, whether it’s the training environment, the meeting environment, the practice environment, the game environment, pregame, halftime. The way he leads. The way he communicates. It’s incredible. When he talks people listen.”
Mack’s impact on the Chargers, on an opponent, on a game might never have been more remarkable than when he recorded a career-high six sacks, including two strip sacks, during a victory Oct. 1, 2023 against the Las Vegas Raiders, a game Harbaugh recalled with awe Wednesday.
“I mean, pretty much single-handedly shut down the run and the pass,” said Harbaugh, who was coaching at the University of Michigan when the Chargers defeated the Raiders, 24-17. I made the statement that I’d never seen this before. Two edge rushers (Mack and Tuli Tuipulotu) won the game for their team. It may never happen again. Then again, it just might.”
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Mack went on to record a career-best 17 sacks last season, matching Chargers records jointly held by Shawne Merriman in 2006 and Leslie O’Neal in 1992. It was the third time Mack had 12 or more sacks in a season, following 2015 while with the Raiders and 2018 while with the Bears.
At season’s end, Mack was selected to the Pro Bowl for the eighth time in his 10-year career, and for the second consecutive season with the Chargers. So far, there’s zero reason to believe he won’t be picked for a ninth time in 11 years. He’s been that good, that reliable, that menacing to opponents.
There’s one other thing, too.
“There’s never any shameless self-promotion,” Harbaugh said. “You talk about being humble and hungry. Humble warrior, there would be his picture right next to it. That’s everything. That’s just some of the things he brings to the team. He’s right up there with the most productive, the most engaged. There’s a word. I love that word. He is engaged. For our team.”