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COSTA MESA, Calif. — Khalil Mack thought about retiring.

It was just about a year ago. The Los Angeles Chargers were trying to both reckon with and move past their shocking playoff defeat in Jacksonville. Mack included.

“That loss,” Mack said, “it was triggering.”

Mack had just finished his ninth NFL season. He was turning 32 years old in February. Did he want to keep playing? Mack was unsatisfied with the way the season ended, sure. But he was also unsatisfied with how he was performing. Mack had just two sacks in the Chargers’ final 11 regular season games.

“I didn’t feel like I affected the game the way I wanted to, or the way that I know I’m capable of,” Mack said.

Coach Brandon Staley and edge rushers coach Giff Smith gave Mack some time to reflect early in the offseason.

“I contemplated hanging them up, man,” Mack said this week.

During the reflection period, Mack said he brought up the possibility of retirement to his wife, Brianna Perry.

Her response: “Oh, hell no.”

That re-established what Mack already knew in his heart: He had more to give. His football life has been fueled by a craving, and that craving has not dissipated.

“I love the feeling of dominating the person across from me,” Mack said. “It’s therapeutic.”

And so he returned for a 10th season on what he called “the mission” — the search for the one thing that has eluded him in his Hall of Fame career, the Lombardi Trophy.

“I wanted to give myself another chance,” Mack said.

The Chargers are 5-7 entering their Week 14 matchup with the Denver Broncos. Their chances at a playoff run are dwindling. Mack might not get the opportunity he is seeking, and that is a real, biting shame. Because Mack, in Year 10, is having one of his greatest seasons. His 15 sacks lead the NFL. He is up to 99 1/2 sacks for his career, one half away from becoming the 43rd player in league history to join the 100-sack club.

.@fiftydeuce tied his career high in sacks (15) and he’s got 5 more weeks to add some more.

Is this his best season yet? pic.twitter.com/uyFPgGOTF7

— NFL (@NFL) December 4, 2023

Mack’s season, though, stretches far beyond these counting stats. On film, he looks like the 24-year-old phenom who took the league by storm in 2015. He has been as complete an edge rusher as there is in football — pass rush, run defending and coverage.

From mulling retirement to what should be his fifth All-Pro season.

“The perception of how old you are and all those different things, I feel like that s— don’t matter,” Mack said. “When you love the game and you put in the work, it’s always going to be a reflection. And I love this game and I come out and I work hard, man. Whether I was 23, 24 when I first got into the league or now, I’m still doing the same things.”

Mack has tied his career high with 15 sacks. He set that mark in his second pro season. With five games remaining, he is almost certainly going to set a new career high in his age-32 season.

This is not a fluke. Mack is affecting the passer consistently on a snap-to-snap basis. His 60 pressures are tied for seventh-most among qualified edge rushers, according to Pro Football Focus. He is on pace for his most pressures since 2017, his age-26 season.

What is most impressive about this pass-rushing season from Mack is who he is doing it against.

Dallas Cowboys left tackle Tyron Smith has been PFF’s highest-graded tackle this season. Mack dominated him for a sack in the first quarter of the Chargers’ 20-17 loss to the Cowboys in Week 6. He had another pressure against Smith in the fourth quarter that led to a sack for teammate Nick Williams.

The Minnesota Vikings’ Christian Darrisaw has been PFF’s second-highest-graded tackle this season. Mack dominated him on multiple reps in the Chargers’ 28-24 win over the Vikings in Week 4.

Mack had a six-sack game against the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 4, a single-game career high. In the second quarter, he bullrushed Kolton Miller into quarterback Aidan O’Connell, forcing a fumble. Miller is PFF’s fifth-highest-graded tackle this season.

In Week 10, Mack beat Detroit Lions left tackle Taylor Decker off the edge in the fourth quarter. Quarterback Jared Goff had to dump off to running back Jahmyr Gibbs to avoid a sack. Linebacker Kenneth Murray Jr. tackled Gibbs for a 3-yard loss. Decker is PFF’s eighth-highest-graded tackle this season.

Mack is dominating the best tackles in the game, and he is doing so in a variety of ways — inside spins, swipes, stutter steps, bends to the edge, explosive stunts to the interior.

But he is winning most often with what has made him one of the greats: raw power.

There are so many remarkable rushes to choose from in this season from Mack. This one against the Baltimore Ravens’ Ronnie Stanley — a $98.75 million left tackle — stands out.

Mack set up to the right side of the Chargers’ defensive front. The Ravens had chip help to that side, with running back Justice Hill assigned to double-team Mack.

Quarterback Lamar Jackson took the snap, and Mack engaged Stanley with a strong left arm.

Mack came with such force on his initial push that Hill barely made contact.

Mack continued his charge.

And he finished the rush by shoving the 315-pound Stanley into Jackson, knocking the quarterback off his feet.

Jackson stood up and escaped the pocket for a 2-yard scramble. Still, this is a good example of how Mack has rushed all season against top competition — on a play that might not show up on your standard box score.

“He’s playing at an elite level, as well as I’ve ever seen him play,” said Staley, who was Mack’s position coach with the Chicago Bears in 2018.

That extends to how Mack is defending the run.

The Chargers, as a group, have dramatically improved as a run defense in 2023. They rank 15th in defensive rushing success rate heading into Week 14, according to TruMedia. They ranked dead last over Staley’s first two seasons.

There are, of course, several reasons for this improvement. Mack playing the way he is tops the list. There is not much opposing offenses can do to avoid him in the run game. When they run away from Mack, he chases down plays from the back side with eye-popping speed and explosiveness. When they run at Mack, he uses his strength to shed front-side blockers — tackles, pulling guards, tight ends, single teams, double teams. When they try to run around Mack with jet sweeps, he uses his awareness and savvy to cut off the runners from gaining the edge.

Mack as a run defender this season is what happens when you pair 99th percentile talent with 99th percentile effort.

And when he gets to the ball carrier, he is ferociously violent. This play on Ezekiel Elliott in the Chargers’ win over the New England Patriots last week is the best example of that this season.

It was late in the fourth quarter, and New England faced a first-and-10 from the 40-yard line, trailing by six points.

Mack aligned to the offense’s right side.

Patriots quarterback Bailey Zappe took the snap and handed off to Elliott on a delayed draw. Notice how far away from the play Mack was when the handoff happened.

As Elliott took his first step, Mack was already around right tackle Mike Onwenu and in pursuit.

Elliott hesitated to read his blockers. Mack was closing in.

Elliott saw a hole.

Mack closed that hole.

This play epitomized Mack’s season as a run defender, saving the day with his blend of skills — athleticism, speed, short-area quickness, explosiveness, football IQ, violence and power.

Mack is used less often in coverage for obvious reasons. But he has also made impact plays in that phase of the game. Like in Week 8 against the Bears, when he had the wherewithal to follow quarterback Tyson Bagent on a trick play. Bagent had handed off to receiver Darnell Mooney on an end around before taking off down the sideline. Mack smothered Bagent on his wheel route and forced Mooney to eat the play.

Or in Week 9 against the New York Jets, when Mack dropped into coverage as a deceptive piece in a Chargers’ Cover 1 man-to-man look. Quarterback Zach Wilson wanted to throw a slant to that side against man coverage. Mack took that away. Wilson held onto the ball, and Joey Bosa got home for a sack.

“It’s just being a complete player,” Mack said.

In his final season with the Bears in 2021, Mack was limited to just seven games because of a foot injury. He had surgery that November and missed the rest of the season. That surgery, Mack said, significantly affected how he trained the ensuing offseason. The Chargers traded a second-round pick for Mack in March 2022.

Mack said he arrived at training camp in Southern California lighter than he wanted to be. The lack of a full offseason affected his stamina and endurance during the grueling 19-week season.

“I knew that I wasn’t all the way myself throughout the year physically,” Mack said.

This past offseason, Mack was healthy enough to go through a more typical training regimen. He said he really made his decision to return for a 10th season when he got “back rolling” with that routine. He was running with the Chargers’ defensive backs. He was playing pickup basketball alongside the Chicago Bulls’ Zach LaVine and “dunking on guys,” as he put it.

“It was a cool offseason,” he says.

In the end, Mack has a love affair with the game that started on 23rd Street in Fort Pierce, Fla. He is addicted to that feeling football uniquely provides — “one of them feelings that you’re just getting everything off your chest and taking it out on the person across from you,” Mack said. He first felt it playing outside with no shoes on as a kid. He took a handoff and started running. “Didn’t nobody touch me,” he said.

He felt it while doing one-on-one Oklahoma drills with his older brother Sandy Jr., who was then a running back in high school. Mack was in middle school. He challenged his brother. “I’ll smack you,” Mack remembers saying.

“Bro, do you realize I’m a high school running back?”

“I don’t care about that.”

They both put their pads on and ran at each other. Sandy Jr. won the first six reps.

“Me being crazy and wanting to smack him so bad, I kept going until my nose was bleeding,” Mack said with a chuckle.

And until Mack got the better of his older brother.

“It’s just one of them things, man,” Mack said.

That is what brought Mack back. That love for competition.

In return, football has cemented his legacy.

(Top photo: Meg Oliphant / Getty Images; screenshots via NFL+)

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