Not that he needed it, but Mack landed another bargaining chip for his new deal this week when Pro Football Focus announced it’s Top 50 Players.
Mack finished 7th on the overall list and was graded the top-ranked edge rusher in the league – finishing one spot ahead of Von Miller.
“Much the same way as Julio Jones and Antonio Brown are difficult to separate as the best receiver in the game, the same holds true for Mack and Miller, with the added spice that they both play in the same division,” PFF’s Sam Monson said of player grades.
“Mack notched 79 total pressures and led the league among edge defenders with 53 defensive stops. He is dominant on the edge as a rusher and a run defender, and has done it without a huge amount of help up front on that Raiders defense. Mack and Miller were tough to separate a season ago and last season only made their comparison a closer one.”
Miller signed a six-year, $114.5 million deal ($70M guaranteed) in 2016 and Mack’s contract will surely exceed those numbers.
The process has been moving slowly (in keeping with the way Reggie McKenzie tends to do deals) but when it’s done, Mack is expected to end up with around $20 million per year and up to $80 million guaranteed – which would exceed Derek Carr’s guaranteed money of a year ago.
Maybe because the Raiders only won six games (or “only” had 10.5 sacks) in 2017, but some seemed to feel last year was a down year for Mack.
Pro Football Focus analytics suggest that wasn’t the case and Raider fans should be optimistic that Mack will be even better in Paul Guenther’s system.
Guenther recently said Mack will have “a lot of catching up to do” when he joins the team, but that comment probably got a little more mileage than it deserved.
If Mack is back with the team by training camp, all will still be well.
twitter: @raidersbeat
That’s was under an FCS caliber DC…PG in the house now…Mack 17.5 _19.5 sacks… I think we break 50 as a team.