Raiders quarterback Derek Carr said recently that he thinks teammate Khalil Mack could get 30 sacks in a season if officials called holding “like they should.”
Mack brushed up on his pass rushing skills at a summit held by Broncos linebacker Von Miller this offseason and he was asked about the possibility of a player getting to 30 sacks in a season on Wednesday. Miller, who had a career-best 18.5 sacks in 2012, believes that it can be done.
“Thirty? I think it is [attainable],” Miller said, via the team’s website. “First off, you’ve got to come out -- let me think about it. You’ve got to get 10 in that first month. You’ve got to get 10 your first month, which is doable. You get two-and-a-half, you get two-and-a-half the next game, two-and-a-half the next game after that. You might miss one game, but then you get two-and-a-half [the next game]. So then you’ve got 10 in five games right there. If you get three, two, three [in a stretch], it’s definitely doable.”
In order to pile up those numbers and eventually break the single-season sack record of 22.5 set by Michael Strahan, Miller says pass rushers have to maximize their opportunities when they get open rushes. It seems likely that opposing teams would do all they can to ensure those opportunities don’t come if a player gets off to the kind of start that Miller is talking about, but even the first part of the equation would go down as an impressive feat for Mack, Miller or any other pass rusher.
