Khalil Mack to Chargers

[Riverwalk]

I bet the Chargers didn't do any medical evaluations or even give him a physical. I bet Putin told the reporters if they ask about Mack's injured foot they will suffer consequences. I bet they just traded for Mack because he was mentioned by Staley 74 times last year in various pressers. I bet if he has another foot injury it is John Spanos's fault. I bet Calvin Ridley $1,500 the Chargers would trade for Mack and that Calvin would get suspended.

TG

The Chargers track record with FA with prior injuries is terrible. Brian Bulaga just the latest of many. Remember Jared “Big “Lazy” Gaithers?

Why have they kept Mack’s injury top secret if it’s a simple injury to fix?

with their track record,,,,no,,,I’m unwilling to bestow the unquestioning halo you’ve given them.

[ghost]

The Chargers track record with FA with prior injuries is terrible. Brian Bulaga just the latest of many. Remember Jared “Big “Lazy” Gaithers?

Why have they kept Mack’s injury top secret if it’s a simple injury to fix?

with their track record,,,,no,,,I’m unwilling to bestow the unquestioning halo you’ve given them.

Mack has had 2.5 months of rest and will have another 4 months of rest, that's how I view it. I also view Derwin James' foot surgery recovery as a success. I think Mack be trusted to be on the practice field on his calendar, and likely no preseason games.

[wu-dai clan]

Bosa--Mack bookends.
It's going to be glorious.

[Riverwalk]

Mack has had 2.5 months of rest and will have another 4 months of rest, that's how I view it. I also view Derwin James' foot surgery recovery as a success. I think Mack be trusted to be on the practice field on his calendar, and likely no preseason games.

6.5 months with the last 4 of rest? You may be underestimating what it takes to get into condition to play edge in the NFL. It requires explosive speed and strength originating from your feet. I doubt that can happen from resting.

Also, you know absolutely zero about what damage his foot sustained, how it was fixed, and how long that takes. So throwing out a timeline of when he will be 100%, 80%, or whatever is just an uneducated opinion. No offense, but recognize it for what it is. Just hope.

Look, I’m extremely happy he’s a Charger and think he’s going to be phenomenal if healthy. I just want to know what the injury is and how it was fixed. Why is that a problem. Derwin’s foot X-ray’s were on the internet and fully disclosed.

[richpjr]

Mack has had 2.5 months of rest and will have another 4 months of rest, that's how I view it. I also view Derwin James' foot surgery recovery as a success. I think Mack be trusted to be on the practice field on his calendar, and likely no preseason games.

I thought Mack had surgery on his toe in November - if so, that is already 4 months.

[Boltdiehard]

Bosa--Mack bookends.
It's going to be glorious.

Bosa Burgers and Big Macks

[ghost]

I thought Mack had surgery on his toe in November - if so, that is already 4 months.

Thank You, Rich.

[Topcat]

Bosa Burgers and Big Macks

Classic! With a side of PANCAKES!

[CivilBolt]

Classic! With a side of Slater PANCAKES!

Fixed it for you

[AK47]

Bosa Burgers and Big Macks

...and Staley Stool Softeners.

[Xenos]

Mack’s a multiplier.

https://www.si.com/nfl/2022/03/21/mmqb-how-browns-got-back-in-deshaun-watson-chase

CHARGERS GET THEIR MULTIPLIER


If there’s one thing that Brandon Staley took away from his season with Khalil Mack, it was Mack’s first pass-rush rep in his first practice in Chicago.

It was September 2018, the Bears had just traded for Mack, and Staley was his position coach. Mack had been holding out all summer, with the Raiders holding the line in contract talks, so the concern was that he wouldn’t be in shape, and there might be a few weeks of transition as the star defender got his legs back. Which is when it happened.

“All eyes are on him, this is his first rep as a Bear, and when he got in that three-point stance on the left side and what that looked like, that get-off—that take-off,” Staley told me recently. “What that rep looked like to me just changed everything, because you knew that this is one of the rare players in the league. So that was a moment that I’ll remember, that first pass rush rep.”

And in a certain way, it informed Staley on what he’d look for this offseason, four years later—and not just in the fact that his Chargers happened to acquire Mack himself.

The last couple of weeks, to Staley and Charger GM Tom Telesco, have brought to life the second phase of a two-year plan they put in motion upon the head coach’s hire two Januarys ago. The 2021 offseason, they’d decided, was going to be about putting up infrastructure around Justin Herbert, and they accomplished that in signing Corey Linsley and Jared Cook, and drafting Rashawn Slater, Josh Palmer and Tre’ McKitty.

This offseason, from the start, was going the other way—bolstering Staley’s defense, and with the guys in-house having a year of technique and scheme work, that it was time to find more personnel to match what the system demanded. And first and foremost, that meant finding guys who could bring premium performance from premium positions, which wasn’t ever going to be easy.

Landing Mack just happened to represent the first chance Staley and Telesco had to do it, and the two took advantage of it, getting him, coming off an injury, for a 2022 second-rounder and a ’23 sixth-rounder. The second came with Patriots corner J.C. Jackson coming free, who was another player with background with the Chargers’ staff, with DC Renaldo Hill and secondary coach Derrick Ansley having recruited him out of high school, and receivers coach Chris Beatty having been together with him at Maryland.

Jackson, like Mack, had experience as a No. 1 at his position with his previous team, and his ball production and instincts on the New England tape were off the charts. So it’s not like he’s just coming to L.A. because of his connections. But that Staley knew Mack, and his assistants knew Jackson, certainly made the moves a little less of a gamble.

“It’s such a critical point, the background information, the character and then the scheme fit,” Staley said. “Because all these guys, there’s not a projection. And so I think that that was a huge component, because you want to know what you’re buying. That’s part of free agency, is you want to know what you’re getting. And that was a big part of it. I felt like that’s why we were so tactical in our approach.

“This group of guys that we’re looking at, it’s like, ’No, we really targeted these guys specifically.’”

It applied with the next phase down, too, with the signing of Sebastian Joseph-Day, who was with Staley when Staley was defensive coordinator for the crosstown Rams—the coach knows what he’s getting in Aaron Donald’s old workout partner. “He was our commander inside, like he’s kind of the quarterback of our D-line,” Staley said. And while he, and his staff don’t have the same sort of relationship, yet, with their other new interior defensive lineman, Austin Johnson, the research shows there are similar traits to Joseph-Day there.

Obviously, the Chargers saw needs, first and foremost, that these guys could fill. But beyond just filling those needs, all those intangibles add up to an overall mindset Staley wanted his defense to have—that his Rams defense had, and that he first saw with Mack brought to Chicago in making an already-really-good unit great.

And Staley has a story to illustrate that one, too. He can remember how that year, during practice, when the team would go from an offensive team period to a defensive team period, Mack would sprint from the sideline to where the ball was spotted. Pretty soon, Akiem Hicks was doing it, too. And Kyle Fuller. And Eddie Jackson. And eventually it turned into a race and carried over into games.

“When we got to the games, what our guys would say was, ‘Hey, take the field.’ Like that’s what he would say all the time when we would go out there and it’s just, ‘Hey, we’re coming fellas,’ and he really changed the entire culture on defense,” Staley said. “And just all those guys, if you look at that season—career year for Kyle Fuller, career year for Akiem Hicks, career year for Eddie Goldman. As a rookie, Roquan [Smith], Prince Amukamara played his best football for us. Eddie Jackson becomes a first-team All-Pro at safety.

“He was a multiplier.”

So the hope now is that all the stars the Chargers have assembled bring out the best in one another—from Mack to Jackson to Joey Bosa and Derwin James—and that trickles down. And that, the idea goes on, would have the defense making the strides the offense did a year ago.

From there, if it takes, well, then it’d be clear the sort of message building this way, and this aggressively, should send a locker room.

“Last year, with what we did in free agency and the draft, you're telling your locker room something—Hey, you're gonna support your quarterback,” Staley said. “This year, you’re specifically telling your locker room that you’re gonna build a complete team. And how do you do that? You back up what you say on a day-to-day basis with your actions, and I think it’s what happens here all the time. They know how I am and how we are as an organization.

“And I think these moves just tell them what they’re reminded of on a daily basis, which is we’re gonna compete every single day to the best of our ability, and that we’re gonna try and arm you guys with the personnel that can eventually lead to being a world champion.”

With Mack and Jackson aboard, they at least look a lot more like one than they might have just a few weeks ago.

[richpjr]

First game for Khalil Mack as a Charger:

6 Tackles
3 Tackles for Loss
3 Sacks
1 Forced Fumble