No player made a bigger impact on their team in the 2018 NFL season than what Khalil Mack did for the Chicago Bears. His debut performance against the Green Bay Packers in Week 1, when he recorded a strip-sack and returned an interception for a touchdown, was a mere preview of the monster season that lied ahead.
Mack ended 2018 with 47 tackles, 10 tackles for loss and 12.5 sacks, all in just 14 games. He’s unquestionably one of the top overall players in the sport and maybe the NFL’s best all-around defensive talent.
But Mack isn’t satisfied with being the best in the game right now. He wants to be remembered as one of the best who ever played.
“You’ve got LT, you got Derrick Thomas,” Mack said Wednesday via the Chicago Sun-Times. “You got special, special guys that have played this position. And that’s all you can do, is kind of chase. You can’t really compare those guys. The best of the best.”
It’s true. Mack isn’t there…yet. It would be unfair to suggest he’s on the same level as Lawrence Taylor or Derrick Thomas, two of the greatest edge defenders in NFL history. But he’s certainly on that trajectory, and if he stays healthy, there’s little reason to doubt he’ll one day be mentioned in that elite class of historic defenders.
Until then, he’ll keep chasing their legend.
“I hold myself to that standard every day. Me and everybody else, we’re holding each other to a higher standard. That’s what it’s all about.”
