{"id":762358,"date":"2026-02-19T12:34:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T12:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/762358\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T12:34:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T12:34:14","slug":"khalil-mack-battles-father-time-joebucsfan-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/762358\/","title":{"rendered":"Khalil Mack Battles Father Time – JoeBucsFan.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\tKhalil Mack Battles Father Time
\nFebruary 19th, 2026 <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Fighting NFL data<\/p>\n

This just doesn\u2019t seem like a Jason Licht move.<\/p>\n

Simply put, Licht, the Bucs\u2019 AC\/DC-loving general manager, does not like to go against mountains of documented data, which shows edge rushers more often than not begin to fall off the map when they reach 30, no matter their names, no matter their accolades.<\/p>\n

No, it is not an absolute, but it sure as hell is a strong tell.<\/p>\n

Father Time doesn\u2019t give an eff what a guy has done in his career. He has his own schedule.<\/p>\n

And Licht surely doesn\u2019t like to throw a vault of Team Glazer loot at a guy who is fighting mountains of data and Father Time. It\u2019s a good way to set yourself up to get fired.<\/p>\n

So when Joe read Chicagoland high school coach and former NFL safety Matt Bowen rank his top free agent fits for BSPN, at No. 22 Bowen lists Los Angeles Chargers edge rusher Khalil Mack going to the Bucs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Bucs had 37 sacks last season, which ranked 18th in the league. They need to address the edges of their pass rush, and while Mack might be seen a situational player for Todd Bowles\u2019 defense, the defender can still create disruption and get home to the quarterback. An elbow injury forced Mack to sit out five of the Chargers\u2019 games early in the 2025 season, yet he finished with 5.5 sacks and 28 pressures.<\/p>\n

What Bowen failed to mention is that Mack turns 35 on Sunday, the day before the NFL world invades downtown Indianapolis for the combine.<\/p>\n

Look, Joe will be happy with any free agent who has demonstrated he can get after a quarterback on a consistent level. But Joe\u2019s leery about Mack.<\/p>\n

The guy is coming off an injury-riddled season at 34. Not good. And it\u2019s been a couple of years since Mack sniffed double-digit sacks. He had 17 in 2023 when he had Joey Bosa playing on the other side of him.<\/p>\n

Joe loves YaYa Diaby but he ain\u2019t no Joey Bosa (yet).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Khalil Mack Battles Father Time February 19th, 2026 Fighting NFL data This just doesn\u2019t seem like a Jason…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":762359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2077],"tags":[211,2599,2598,7,6,704,250,2597,2596],"class_list":{"0":"post-762358","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-buccaneers","8":"tag-buccaneers","9":"tag-bucs-message-boards","10":"tag-bucs-news","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-tampa-bay","14":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","15":"tag-tampabay","16":"tag-tampabaybuccaneers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116097323900814017","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=762358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/762359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=762358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=762358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=762358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}