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This may be the most important Khalil Mack film you ever watch: The NFL’s Apex Predator

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If watching this film doesn’t give you goosebumps, you may need to check if you have a pulse.

The same analyst who correctly pegged Gareon Conley as the perfect pick for the Raiders is back. He is SB Nation’s own Brett Kollmann and he gives us what I believe may be the best bit of film breakdown on Khalil Mack you will ever watch. I’m gonna shutup for a moment and let you watch it.

You done? How’s that blood flow? Ok, good.

A few statements that stood out in this film to me.

  1. “Watching him scream off the edge every single week, it’s almost impossible to not see a carbon copy of the great Lawrence Taylor.”
  2. “I would consider his speed to power move inside to be his signature move and it highlights why he is such a dominant player. He’s versatile. It’s not every day that you can find an edge rusher that can either run around you or run through you to get where he wants to go. Usually it’s one or the other, but only the truly special players can do both at the same time.”
  3. “He did not have a sack in the first three games of the season primarily because he was playing against offenses that respected him, obviously knew what he was capable of and they got the ball out of the quarterback’s hands in two seconds or less... the only ways to keep Mack from wrecking the game; double team him on 5 and 7 step drops and on everything else just put your quarterback on the 2-second mental clock.”
  4. Kollman says there’s a big difference between a guy like Chargers second-year pass rusher Joey Bosa and a “transcendent” pass rusher like Mack. “Only 4.5 sacks of [Bosa’s] 10.5 total throughout his rookie year were what I consider to be ‘high quality’. . . but Mack? Ten out of his 11.0 sacks . . . was earned the hard way. He beat people with speed, he beat people with hand usage, and he beat people with power. He wasn’t cleaning up after everyone else’s pressure, he wasn’t schemed free on stunts, he wasn’t left unblocked due to protection errors. Mack had a target on his back every snap of every game and he still produced at an elite level like an elite player should. That is the difference between him and a player like Bosa.”
  5. “I don’t think Mack has any limitations whatsoever in any facet of his game.”
  6. “The alpha among all alphas is a Raider.”

In case you were wondering; Brett Kollman is not a Raiders fan. He does not cover the Raiders exclusively for this site or this network. He is an SB Nation NFL analyst.