Chicago Bears: Over or Under 10.5 sacks for Khalil Mack in 2019?

In his second season with the Chicago Bears will Khalil Mack finish with less than 10.5 sacks or more?

With the start of the 2019 offseason is time to project ahead to what we might expect to see in the regular season. As he does every season Mike Clay came out with 2019 regular season stat projections that look into both sides of the ball.

In our last post we discussed Akiem Hicks and his sack total.

Another player who was interesting to note was Khalil Mack. He has Mack with a strong season, no doubt. His tallies come to 59 tackles and 10.6 sacks.

However, while double digits sacks is not going to be a problem, you have to wonder if that is actually on the lower side. Last season Mack put up 12.5 sacks. Excluding his rookie season, 10.5 sacks would tie his career low in the last four years. He averages 12 sacks per season over that year span.

Considering Mack joined the Bears in the last week of the training camp, and played in Week One with limited or no conditioning, it should be expected that he steps forward next season.

While it is worth noting that there is a new defensive coordinator in town, and no one knows the true impact of that, we do know that Mack and Akiem Hicks having more familiarity and playing off of each other is only go to increase its value over time.

With the new defensive coordinator, a few things can be argued. One is that the defense will take time to gel. The other is that Chuck Pagano is known for blitzing more. Is there a chance that Mack plateaus in sacks or even dips as Clay projects while the Bears see sack totals elsewhere?

It is plausible but unlikely. No matter who is blitzing they are blitzing with Khalil Mack, Mack is going to get his. He also is not going to be on the sidelines. One of the real issues the Bears have is limited depth behind him and Leonard Floyd. Aaron Lynch will rotate in, but the team will solely rely on heavy workloads from Mack.

Mack is entering his age 28 season which is the middle of his prime and it could be argued that he will find himself closer to the 15 sacks of his second career year than 10.5 sacks.