Oakland Raiders linebacker Khalil Mack made his presence felt for the silver and black almost from Day One in the NFL. While the rest of the team and defense around him struggled to deal with the mid-season transition from Dennis Allen to Tony Sparano and the frustrating 2014 campaign overall - a campaign which ended in hopeful, yet mostly disappointing fashion for Raider Nation - Mack kept his head down and worked his way to 75 tackles, four sacks, one forced fumble and three passes defensed in 16 rookie-year games.
While Mack has already developed into one of the best - if not the best - defensive players on the Raiders, the question then becomes just how good he is in comparison to the rest of the league. If he can up his impact and versatility even further in Year Two, some, including Conor Orr of NFL.com, believe he could become perhaps the best linebacker in the league.
Mack's teammate and fellow linebacker, Curtis Lofton, indicated in early June that the returns on the work put in by Mack in the offseason following his successful rookie campaign, was so promising that Mack had essentially turned himself into a "monster."
Considering new Raiders defensive coordinator Ken Norton, Jr. has already gone on record as desiring a defense that is "fast, mean, tough," it makes sense that he also believes Mack, who is nothing if not fast and tough - he's probably still working on the mean part - has a "great future" in the NFL.
Mack brought such innate power with him when he entered the league, the fact that he's reportedly added 10 to 15 pounds of muscle this offseason is jaw-dropping and, further, likely a troublesome thought for opposing offenses. Mack already displayed a veteran-like physicality as a rookie, with a jarring punch and long-enough arms to keep offensive lineman away from his body as he worked his way to the ball.
Mack was already forced to face double teams on numerous occasions in Year One, meaning it won't come as a surprise for him to take them on in Year Two.
The one area where Mack is perceived to have a flaw is as a pass-rusher. Limited overall output in terms of the stat sheet - just four sacks on the year - meant some assumed that Mack needed to hone his pass-rush skills in order to make more of an impact in 2015. While it's true that Mack could stand to beef up his repertoire of pass-rush moves, it simply isn't true that it was a hole in his game last year.
Simply put, Mack's own versatility likely impacted his final stats. Instead of specializing in one aspect of the game, Mack lined up all over the Raiders defense and, as is evident by his totals, left his mark on the game in several areas.
With new Raiders head coach Jack Del Rio having loaded up on linebackers this offseason, bringing in Lofton and Malcolm Smith as free agents and drafting Ben Heeney and Josh Shirley, Mack may be unleashed to an even greater degree under Norton next season, ala Von Miller, Del Rio's former star pupil with the Broncos.
