Why Khalil Mack is the Defensive Player of the Year

Following another dominant season, Oakland Raiders edge rusher Khalil Mack should be named the 2016 NFL Defensive Player of the Year.

Fresh off of a season in which he became the first player in NFL history to be named All-Pro at multiple positions, Oakland Raiders defensive end Khalil Mack put on an encore performance for the ages and has an extremely strong case to be named the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year for the 2016 season.

For the purpose of defending the premise that Khalil was the “Mack-Daddy” of NFL defenders this year, we will examine some of his superlatives from this campaign and compare them to his contemporaries. This will not be an examination of each exceptional defender’s case for the award or a comparison of all players to one another, rather only an examination of Mack’s case as an exceptional defender and how he compares to his aforementioned contemporaries.

One easy way to have this discussion is to examine Mack’s performance and impact on his team in relation to other defenders that play professional football “in the box,” — that is, compare Mack to the cream of the crop defensive lineman and linebackers (both positions that Mack can occupy) as well as examine his performance and impact on his team relative to the impact of any relevant top defensive backs.

I will briefly be examining Mack in relation to four other defenders listed on ABC’s/ESPN’s candidates for DPOY in an article by Bill Barnwell; Vic Beasley, DE, Falcons; Aaron Donald, DT, Rams; Von Miller, LB, Broncos; & Landon Collins, S, Giants.