Raiders’ Khalil Mack sets sights on sacks record in 2017

NAPA — After two straight seasons with All-pro honors and winning the AP Defensive Player of the Year last season, Khalil Mack has set his goals for 2017 quite high.

He just wasn’t expecting Raiders quarterback Derek Carr to make public his quest for 30 sacks, which would crush Michael Strahan’s NFL record of 22 1/2 set in 2001 and might seem a bit out of reach to most outsiders.

“That’s the number I shoot for, but I didn’t want him to tell everybody else,” Mack said. “But at the same time, D.C., he knows how hard we work, what kind of work we put in, and he knows what I want but at the same time. Realistically, we just want to get the record at least.”

Mack’s career high in sacks is 15 set in his second season back in 2015. He had only 11 last season when he had to deal with offensive schemes designed to limit his impact, overcome frequent holds that sometimes went uncalled and got little help from an interior pass rush that failed to generate consistent pressure.

Despite those hurdles, Mack still ranked second in the NFL with 64 quarterback pressures, according to Sportradar, in a sign that there are more sacks for him to get this season.

Mack also spent part of the offseason getting pass rushing tips from a rival, Denver star Von Miller. Mack attended “The Von Miller Pass Rush Summit” at Stanford with more than a dozen other NFL stars there like recently retired star Demarcus Ware, 2016 NFL sack leader Vic Beasley and No. 3 overall draft pick Solomon Thomas of San Francisco.