Bucs Interested In Pro Bowl Edge Rusher Khalil Mack

The Bucs are interested in star pass rusher and pending free agent Khalil Mack. Per Jeremy Fowler of ESPN, Tampa Bay has interest in bringing in Mack to help boost their pass rush.

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 Want To Improve Four-Man Pass Rush

Chargers edge rusher Khalil Mack – Photo by: USA Today

Head coach Todd Bowles is on record this past week at the NFL Scouting Combine as saying the team has to improve its four-man pass rush.

“We have to do a better job rushing four,” Bowles said. “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 outside linebacker Yaya Diaby saw an increase in quarterback pressures and overall pass rush efficiency in 2024 but failed to increase on his 7.5-sack rookie performance, registering just 4.5 quarterback takedowns last year. Fellow outside linebackers Joe Tryon-Shoyinka and Anthony Nelson are both pending free agents and it looks like the team may move on from both.

Chris Braswell, last year’s second-round pick, had a solid close to the season, but is still very raw and unproven. All-in-all the Bucs only generated only 12 sacks combined from their top four outside linebackers last year.

Khalil Mack Still Productive In His Mid-Thirties

Chargers edge rusher Khalil Mack – Photo by: USA Today

Khalil Mack has had a prolific career, with 107.5 sacks and 736 pressures in his 11-year career. He is a nine-time Pro Bowler, a three-time first-team All-Pro and the 2016 Defensive Player of the Year. And while his best years are behind him, he still produced 52 pressures and six sacks last year in Los Angeles with the Chargers.

One of the things Bowles cited as important to the team as they retool for 2025 is the importance of having ballhawks at every level of the field. As that relates to pass rushers he cited getting to the quarterback as a priority.

“Right now for me, I want ballhawks,” Todd Bowles said. “Whether that’s a down guy, a defensive lineman, whether he bats balls down or gets strip-sacks. Whether that’s an outside linebacker, whether that’s a backer that can punch the ball out and get turnovers. Whether that’s a safety that can hit and jar the ball loose 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 single negative he noted in retroactively scouting Joe Tryon-Shoyinka.

“I think Joe did everything right for us except get to the quarterback on a consistent basis,” Bowles said. “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 strong finisher even at the twilight of his career. Last year he converted 17% of his pressures into sacks and over the past three seasons that number is just over 18%. He also has 12 passes defensed and eight forced fumbles in the past two years. Mack would also provide the Bucs outside linebacker room with a veteran presence from a high-level player not unlike Ndamokung Suh’s role in the defensive tackle room from 2019 to 2022.

If Mack, whose sack production fell from 17 in 2023 to six last year, were to enter free agency, myself and other analysts have his market value north of $20 million per year over a short-term contract, likely just one-to-two years. The Bucs could easily afford this from a salary cap perspective by restructuring any of their star veteran contracts such as safety Antoine Winfield Jr., Pro Bowl quarterback Baker Mayfield or All-Pro left tackle Tristan Wirfs.

And the team should have plenty of cash to make the deal happen as well.