Why Khalil Mack stayed in L.A.; inside his relationship with Tuli Tuipulotu - ESPN

LOS ANGELES — Almost everything is a competition between Los Angeles Chargers outside linebackers Khalil Mack and Tuli Tuipulotu.

It's commonplace to hear one of them yelling the other's name in the locker room, sometimes to annoy, other times to lay down a challenge. Last season, the competition of choice was shuffleboard; this season, it's cornhole, and occasionally pingpong. Tuipulotu's never afraid to trash-talk Mack. «That was weak as hell, OG,» he once told Mack during a game of cornhole. Mack laughed it off: «Watch this.»

It's a big brother-little brother dynamic built on playful jabs and banter — but there's a throughline of respect and admiration.

«I just want to be him,» Tuipulotu said. «I want to be a great player like him, a great person like him, a great everything like him.»

Across his 12 NFL seasons, Mack has accomplished nearly everything a defender can: a Defensive Player of the Year award, five All-Pro selections, over 100 sacks. It's a résumé destined for Canton. But team success has eluded him. Mack is 0-5 in the postseason, including two painful losses in his first three years with the Chargers. Despite interest from other contenders in the offseason, he returned to Los Angeles ahead of this season because he believed this roster — and this defense — had the pieces to finally change that.

In the process, he has helped usher along the rise of the once shy Tuipulotu, now one of the league's most promising young edge rushers. Together, they buoy one of the league's best defenses — one that the Chargers hope can carry them to a title. That process begins in a wild-card round matchup against the New England Patriots on Sunday night (8 ET, NBC/Peacock).

«Khalil is one of the best ever to do it,» Chargers