EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — They both took pay cuts to return. To have one more season, together. To try to win, together. They believed in Jim Harbaugh. They believed in the core of players. They believed in each other. And now, the moment Joey Bosa and Khalil Mack envisioned has arrived.
The Los Angeles Chargers are in the playoffs, facing the Houston Texans in the wild-card round Saturday afternoon. The elusive Lombardi Trophy is in sight. Bosa and Mack are both healthy — as healthy as they can hope to be at this stage of a season and their careers. They are in rhythm and impacting games.
“It’s been a real journey,” Mack says.
At so many different points over the past three years, this opportunity felt lightyears away. When the Chargers traded for Mack in March 2022, the possibilities were staggering. Two of the best pass rushers of a generation on the same defense? The duo could be unstoppable.
But on the field, the partnership has never reached that potential.
Mack has enjoyed a resurgence in this twilight of his career, including a career-high 17 sacks in 2023. Bosa has been slapped in the face, over and over, by his football mortality. Double core surgery in 2022 that forced him to miss 11 games. The next season, a hamstring strain, then a broken toe, then a season-ending foot sprain in Green Bay. Bosa was in tears, his head buried in a towel, while being carted off the sideline at Lambeau Field after that injury. Finger surgery in the offseason. A broken hand in training camp this past summer. Another surgery. A back injury in Week 2 that turned into sciatic nerve pain down his left side.
“There’s not a lot of time left for me, probably,” Bosa said. “It’s coming fast.”
Mack has played 2,367 snaps for the Chargers over the past three seasons. Bosa has been with him on the field for only 627 of those snaps — 26.4 percent. They played in a playoff game together in the 2022 season. Bosa, though, had only returned from core surgery two weeks prior. He was still working his way back into game shape. That was the collapse in Jacksonville. Bosa was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct in the second half after smashing his helmet to the turf in frustration. Mack contemplated retirement the next offseason. The organization went off the rails in 2023. The Chargers fired their coach and general manager.
“Some ups and downs,” as Mack described it.
That is the football side of this relationship. But to focus purely on that is to miss what has been happening behind the scenes: The nurturing of a lasting bond and the type of personal growth that can only be borne out of genuine connection. There might be untapped potential for the Mack-Bosa partnership on the field. Off the field? This is a fully realized and deep friendship.
“That’s my brother,” Mack said. “I love him.”
“He’s just inspiring,” Bosa said.
Out of countless conversations over the past three years, one sticks with Bosa.
Bosa has an active mind. He can fixate on the future, or the past, as is human nature. It was 2022, and Mack and Bosa were still feeling each other out. Bosa had a sudden realization about a lifting session he and Mack were scheduled for later in the the day. It had slipped his mind until this moment. He mentioned it to Mack.
Mack describes himself as “honest and forthcoming,” and he was both of those things as he offered an observation to Bosa, even in these early stages of the relationship.
“You know,” Mack replied, “You’re always thinking about something in the future, aren’t you?”
Bosa agreed. He still agrees, as he retells the story in the Chargers locker room in early January.
“I’m always ruminating,” he says. “That was a big reminder for me to try to stay in the moment.”
Bosa needed that reminder through all these injuries over the past three years. It takes a village, of course. And Bosa gives credit to the many people in his life who have helped him through this tumultuous era of his career. Teammates and family. “And therapists,” he adds.
“You can go down the list of people that are Team Joey, which is important,” Bosa says.
At the same time, no one can truly understand the physical toll and mental wear of playing in the trenches in the NFL quite like Mack, who, at 33, is four years older than Bosa. Mack, for instance, pulled both his groins in a single game earlier this season, Week 9 in Cleveland.
“It would be weird not having him here over the last few years,” Bosa says.
Mack only missed one game because of the groin strains.
“He’s older than me, and he’s been through a lot, too, physically,” Bosa says. “I know he’s had some setbacks this year a little bit, but sometimes it just seems like he’s a robot out there. But he’s not, and he’s battling through pain and doing this and that. Sometimes it can seem like he’s just impervious to these things, but it’s more about him working through it and having pretty even emotions through it all.
“He’s a true classic dude. It’s kind of hard to get in to see how he’s really feeling. You got to pester him a little bit because I think he feels like he’s a man and he’s got to f—ing handle it in a certain way, which I think is actually pretty, pretty cool. I’ve always been pretty emotional and more in my emotions outwardly, and he’s not exactly that way. I like how that kind of interacts.”
Mack has imparted a mindset onto Bosa.
“It’s football, man, and unfortunate s— can happen,” Mack says. “But ultimately, the s— that you can control is your attitude, and that’s one of the things I kind of relay to him when he’s going through s—. And when I’m going through it, when anybody is going through it. It’s not what happened to you. It’s how you handle it.”
Some of the conversations are deep and profound. Sometimes, Bosa and Mack are just “shooting the s—,” Bosa says.
Bosa was trying to pick up the guitar in 2022. Mack has been playing guitar for years. Mack offered tips, though Bosa has since “given it up until after my career.” Mack listens to a “wide array of music,” according to Bosa. Bosa is the same way. Mack typically chooses the music off his phone in the edge rusher room. Bosa has been into the bands Magdalena Bay and Mr Twin Sister this season.
They talk about life. Relationships. Marriage. Fatherhood. Mack has two boys, Deuce and Kylo, with his wife, Brianna Perry. Bosa got engaged in July. He is inviting Mack to his wedding.
“It’s nice to have somebody that went through a very similar path as you and recently,” Bosa says.
joey vs khalil rock band RIGHT NOW pic.twitter.com/vLO3fANKx4
— Los Angeles Chargers (@chargers) August 31, 2022
They have found common ground in their ability to learn from each other.
“Joey’s cool, but it’ll take him time to get used to certain people, and I’m kind of the same way,” Mack said. “But once I let you in, it’s smooth sailing from there.”
Bosa trusts Mack and that’s opened his eyes to different methods of leadership.
“He understands the position he’s in as a vet and a leader and how much influence he has on people,” Bosa said of Mack. “He understands the importance that even if you do something and it doesn’t affect you necessarily, that it could rub off on a younger guy or another guy in the wrong way and you don’t even realize it. …
“I can be a little cynical sometimes. And for me, it doesn’t affect my willingness or wanting to work out or train or whatever, but maybe a young guy hears it and is like, ‘Ah yeah, f— this, Joey doesn’t want to, isn’t gonna’ or whatever. So there’s things like that and just to be mindful of that.”
Or as Mack put it, “Be the example that you want everybody else to be around you.”
Take Sunday’s win over the Las Vegas Raiders as an example. Bosa was called for neutral zone infractions on back-to-back plays. In Jacksonville in 2022, he erupted at the referees. In this game, Bosa jogged off the field. He had no reaction on the sideline.
This growth has materialized in various ways for Bosa. In 2023, for instance, he showed up for the first day of organized team activities in May. In previous seasons, Bosa had skipped some or all of OTAs while working out in Florida with his brother, Nick, a star edge rusher for the San Francisco 49ers. That day, in May 2023, Bosa was asked why it was important to be there for the opening practice. “The coaches telling me,” he initially quipped.
But as he talked further, he identified another motivator: Mack.
“He’s definitely part of the reason I’ve come out early,” Bosa said. “I feel obligated to do my stuff when I have him watching me, have him counting on me. It’s nice to have that.”
Looking back, Bosa sees this as part of his maturation process.
“Sometimes I would make it worse in my head than it actually was,” Bosa said of pausing his Florida training and making the cross-country trip. “I’ve just relaxed a little bit over time when things aren’t going exactly how I planned them or want them to go. Sometimes it’s not about me. It’s about the team.”
Khalil Mack and Joey Bosa have both helped each other grow on and off the field. (Scott Winters / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Mack has played a role in this steady awakening. Part of it, too, is just the natural process of life and growing up. Bosa has earned nearly $150 million in his career, most of it from a five-year extension he signed ahead of the 2020 season. He has won one playoff game.
Motivations change as the years stack up. Sometimes, the right person enters a life at the right moment and nudges those motivations, as well.
“I’ve always cared about the team, obviously,” Bosa said. “But I think we’re all naturally a little selfish, especially when for so long you’re just trying to make your way in the league and you’re trying to do everything that’s right for you. Then you get a contract and you realize, ‘Oh wait, this isn’t the ultimate goal of happiness and there’s more important things than making money and being individually successful and all that stuff.
“I would definitely say that he’s helped with that stuff,” Bosa added of Mack. “It’s definitely a slow process, and it happens faster for some people or never for some people. I feel like I definitely have a lot more maturing to do, but I feel like I’m heading in the right direction.”
Over a week in March, Mack and Bosa agreed to pay cuts as part of contract restructures. Mack took a $4.25 million pay cut, according to Over the Cap. Bosa took a $7 million pay cut. The Chargers approached Keenan Allen with a similar offer. He refused. Allen, the longest-tenured member of the team, was traded to the Chicago Bears for a fourth-round pick two days after Mack’s agreement and one day after Bosa’s agreement. Bosa became the last remaining Charger who played in San Diego.
Three months later, Bosa and Mack spoke publicly for the first time since the negotiations and decisions, on the second day of Harbaugh’s minicamp in June.
“Just understanding where I’m at in my career right now and the best chance to win, ultimately that’s what it came down to,” Mack said then. “I don’t have any years to waste.”
“I want to win, I want to be on this team, I want another shot with the guys in this room, especially Khalil,” Bosa said. “Winning football games is more important to me right now than making some extra money.”
GO DEEPER
Chargers minicamp: Khalil Mack, Joey Bosa on why they took pay cuts to return
Harbaugh said he felt in the moment that Bosa and Mack returning to the team in this fashion was “huge.” Looking back, after 11 regular season wins and a playoff berth, the decisions have taken on even more meaning for Harbaugh and his staff.
“I don’t know if I can think of anything that meant more,” Harbaugh said.
“It is unbelievable, just the tone that it set for the whole organization,” defensive coordinator Jesse Minter said. “They had to believe that we were gonna win.”
Bosa said he did not communicate much with Mack during the negotiation process. He remembers sending one text.
Instead, this was an embodiment of one of Harbaugh’s favorite sayings: “What people do speaks so loudly that you can’t even hear what they say.”
Mack returned. Bosa followed.
No words necessary. The bond, solidified over three roller-coaster years, was more than enough.
“What he did, it made it a little easier for me to be like, ‘Hey, this is important,’” Bosa said. “It’s important for him.”
Bosa was sitting at a locker last week, fidgeting with his foot as he was asked a question about the position the Chargers are in.
The chance he and Bosa talked about in March had come to fruition.
They have a shot, together.
“What would I have given up to be in this moment before?” Bosa asked rhetorically.
He stopped himself.
There was a lesson on his mind.
“Sometimes reflecting on it is good, but I think just putting your head down and looking up when it’s finished is even more important,” Bosa said. “Stay in the moment.”
He learned that from Mack.
“All you want is that opportunity to get in,” Mack said. “It’s up to us to make something happen.”
(Top photos of Khalil Mack and Joey Bosa: Winslow Townson and Kathryn Riley / Getty Images)
