Chargers’ Khalil Mack has historic sack party against his former Raiders team

In one of the great vengeance performances you’ll see, Los Angeles Chargers linebacker Khalil Mack nearly tied Derrick Thomas’ sack record against his old team, the Las Vegas Raiders.

Mack, who didn’t record a sack in the first three games of the season, finished the afternoon contest with six, one away from matching Thomas’ record seven set in 1990 while with the Kansas City Chiefs.

Quarterback Aidan O’Connell, selected in the fourth round of the 2023 NFL Draft out of Purdue, made his first career NFL start under center for the Raiders in place of an injured Jimmy Garrapolo, who is in concussion protocol.

And Mack welcomed him into the league by making history, becoming one of five players in NFL history to get at least six sacks in one game, tying for the second most in NFL history with Adrian Clayborn, Osi Umenyiora, Fred Dean, and Thomas again.

The Chargers subsequently defeated the Raiders 24-17, improving to 2-2 on the season, dropping the Raiders to 1-3.

Mack, listed at 6-foot-3 and approximately 270 pounds, was drafted in the first round at No. 5 overall out of Buffalo University in 2014 by the Raiders, then of Oakland.

He spent his first four seasons with the Raiders, quickly becoming one of the league’s elite pass rushers before being traded to the Chicago Bears prior to the 2018 season, where he then signed a six-year, $141 million extension, then becoming the highest-paid defensive player in NFL history.

Mack was traded to the Chargers following the 2021 season.

The 2016 NFL Defensive Player of the Year now has 91.5 career sacks, and is on pace to have his first double-digit sack season since 2018.

Mack has been a first-team All-Pro four times in his career, a second-team All-Pro once, and been named a Pro Bowler on on seven occasions, as well as to the NFL All-Decades Team for 2020.