Bucs In Professional Bowl Edge Rusher Khalil Mack

The Bucs are occupied with star cross rusher and pending free agent Khalil Mack. Per Jeremy Fowler of ESPN, Tampa Bay has curiosity in bringing in Mack to assist increase their cross rush.

Pewter Report can verify this report.

Fowler notes, “Teams agree edge rusher Khalil Mack played lights out last season, and the only real concern with his free agency is age (he’s 34). A few people I’ve talked to have made potential connections to the Buccaneers and Bears. Tampa Bay typically doesn’t spend big on external free agents but is looking for pass-rush help.”

Bucs Need To Enhance 4-Man Cross Rush

Chargers edge rusher Khalil Mack – Picture by: USA Right this moment

Head coach Todd Bowles is on file this previous week on the NFL Scouting Mix as saying the staff has to enhance its four-man cross rush.

“We have to do a better job rushing four,” Bowles mentioned. “We can get pass rush with pressure, but you don’t want to pressure all the time. I think we have to do a better job with four.”

Second-year exterior linebacker Yaya Diaby noticed a rise in quarterback pressures and general cross rush effectivity in 2024 however failed to extend on his 7.5-sack rookie efficiency, registering simply 4.5 quarterback takedowns final 12 months. Fellow exterior linebackers Joe Tryon-Shoyinka and Anthony Nelson are each pending free brokers and it seems just like the staff might transfer on from each.

Chris Braswell, final 12 months’s second-round decide, had a strong near the season, however continues to be very uncooked and unproven. All-in-all the Bucs solely generated solely 12 sacks mixed from their prime 4 exterior linebackers final 12 months.

Khalil Mack Nonetheless Productive In His Mid-Thirties

Chargers edge rusher Khalil Mack – Picture by: USA Right this moment

Khalil Mack has had a prolific profession, with 107.5 sacks and 736 pressures in his 11-year profession. He’s a nine-time Professional Bowler, a three-time first-team All-Professional and the 2016 Defensive Participant of the Yr. And whereas his greatest years are behind him, he nonetheless produced 52 pressures and 6 sacks final 12 months in Los Angeles with the Chargers.

One of many issues Bowles cited as necessary to the staff as they retool for 2025 is the significance of getting ballhawks at each degree of the sector. As that pertains to cross rushers he cited attending to the quarterback as a precedence.

“Right now for me, I want ballhawks,” Todd Bowles mentioned. “Whether or not that’s a down man, a defensive lineman, whether or not he bats balls down or will get strip-sacks. Whether or not that’s an outdoor linebacker, whether or not that’s a backer that may punch the ball out and get turnovers. Whether or not that’s a security that may hit and jar the ball unfastened and get turnovers.

“Whether that’s a corner that has a nose for the ball. We need ballhawks, we need turnovers, we need guys that are very astute in the game that can see things and make plays and go get them. That’s what I’m looking for.”

It was the one unfavourable he famous in retroactively scouting Joe Tryon-Shoyinka.

“I think Joe did everything right for us except get to the quarterback on a consistent basis,” Bowles mentioned. “I thought from a run standpoint he was fine, from a drop standpoint he was fine, from a toughness standpoint, he was fine. He did everything [we asked of him]. Obviously, when you think edge rushers, you want to think get to the quarterback first. And that didn’t show up from a double-digit standpoint and some of it – we drop differently than normal teams and some of it is you have to turn the corner at some point but just rushing the passer a little bit more will be the only thing. Everything else, he did okay.”

Mack continues to be a robust finisher even on the twilight of his profession. Final 12 months he transformed 17% of his pressures into sacks and over the previous three seasons that quantity is simply over 18%. He additionally has 12 passes defensed and eight compelled fumbles previously two years. Mack would additionally present the Bucs exterior linebacker room with a veteran presence from a high-level participant not not like Ndamokung Suh’s position within the defensive deal with room from 2019 to 2022.

If Mack, whose sack manufacturing fell from 17 in 2023 to 6 final 12 months, have been to enter free company, myself and different analysts have his market worth north of $20 million per 12 months over a short-term contract, doubtless simply one-to-two years. The Bucs might simply afford this from a wage cap perspective by restructuring any of their star veteran contracts comparable to security Antoine Winfield Jr., Professional Bowl quarterback Baker Mayfield or All-Professional left deal with Tristan Wirfs.

And the staff ought to have loads of money to make the deal occur as nicely.