Super Bowl LIX has come and gone, and it's time for NFL teams to start building towards the 2025 season. In Free Agency Primer, we'll cover some of the best players who could be on the move once the legal tampering window opens on March 10th.
Los Angeles Chargers Edge Rusher Khalil Mack
Young, ascendent players tend to get all the attention in free agency, but ring-hungry veterans can make an impact, too. Los Angeles Chargers edge rusher Khalil Mack is a nine-time Pro Bowler and future Hall of Famer with plenty left to offer. With 107.5 sacks and 142 tackles for loss to his name, he has dominated in a variety of systems over the past 11 years, but his resume still lacks a Super Bowl championship. 2025 may be one of his last chances.
Mack's production has ebbed and flowed over his career, but he remains a consistently effective and disruptive veteran edge rusher. His 6.0 sacks and six tackles for loss in 2024 seem like steep drops from his 17.0/21 campaign of 2023, but that's just the nature of the position. He earned a 90.4 overall grade from Pro Football Focus last year, so there should be little doubt he remains elite at his position. At the very least, he should be a potent addition to any defensive line rotation.
Who Should Be Interested?
Mack just turned 34 years old, so the clock is ticking on his stellar career. Given the stage he's at, it's very unlikely the Chargers will elect to apply the franchise tag on him. The Chargers are also the third team Mack has played for, so he may not necessarily have as much loyalty to the organization as a more established veteran leader.
Landing with a contender should be Mack's first priority. Re-upping with the Chargers makes a certain amount of sense because he was a significant part of a winning defense last year (first in points allowed), but he could also aim a little bit higher and choose a team that made a deeper playoff run. The Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills could probably benefit from his expertise in their defensive line rotations.
Assessing Mack's value on the open market is a tricky proposition. Very few NFL players are this good this late in their careers. Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Rams edge rusher Von Miller signed a six-year, $120 million contract with the Bills in 2022, but that turned out to be a regrettable deal.
Mack is slightly older and probably carries a slightly lower profile than Miller, so it's hard to envision he would land a similarly lucrative deal. Something in the neighborhood of the three-year, $45 million deal Haason Reddick signed with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2022 seems more realistic, but the inflation of the salary cap could pump that up a bit.
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