Would you rather have Khalil Mack or in-his-prime Howie Long anchor your defense?

Khalil Mack hasn’t been around long enough to be an all-time great for one of the NFL’s most storied franchises, but he’s on track to get there. In his first four seasons as a pro, he’s racked up 40.5 sacks, three Pro Bowl invitations, two first-team All-Pro honors, and one AP Defensive Player of the Year award.

If he keeps that pace, he’ll catch up to a Raiders legend — defensive lineman Howie Long. Long set the standard for Oakland’s pass rushers over the course of a 13-year career, disrupting AFC blocking schemes and wreaking havoc on quarterbacks like John Elway, Dan Fouts, and Dave Krieg.

While it doesn’t make much sense to compare their careers when Mack’s is a work in progress, it’s easy to see the young linebacker’s Long-esque influence on the field. So given the choice of either player at his peak, who would you choose to build your defense around: the player inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 2000, or the one who staked his claim as the league’s top defender in 2016?

There’s a problem with this hypothetical; we don’t know if we’ve seen Mack at his best just yet. While 2017 was a downturn for him, he still played at a Pro Bowl level and is only 27 years old. When you consider the strides he’s made growing from MAC standout to All-Pro, it’s not unreasonable to think he can still get better.

So for this exercise, let’s take each player at his peak so far. For Long, that’s the 1983-85 stretch that saw him rack up 35 sacks for a team that won 35 games. For Mack, that’s 2015-16, a stretch that marked his ascent to elite player and ended with DPOY honors. You’re picking one of these two to anchor your defense for the next three seasons. Which do you choose?

There’s a reason why Long didn’t linger long on Hall of Fame ballots. He was a franchise-defining talent who lifted the Raiders’ defense to fearsome heights and elevated his supporting cast to all-star status. He was a monster against smaller offensive linemen in the 80s and 90s, and his size — 6’5 and 270 pounds — indicates he would have been dominant against any era of blocker. Long is bigger than 2017 sack leader Chandler Jones, Cowboys star Demarcus Lawrence, and yep, current Raider star Mack.

Long’s flexibility gave him the opportunity to terrorize quarterbacks from multiple spots on the line, moving inside and out like the beta version of J.J. Watt. His explosion off the snap belied a physical style predicated on beating up anyone in his path. Long could get past offensive guards and tackles with a quick first step or a swim move, but his preferred technique was to straight-up overpower people.

That’s not to say he wasn’t a cerebral athlete, though.

“Howie brought so much versatility,” NFL.com senior writer Vic Carucci told NFL Films for a feature naming him the second-greatest player in franchise history. “The ability to play multiple positions, the know-how, the smarts. Howie could be coached to do whatever he was needed to do.“

That included bursting into the backfield to bust up running play after running play. At Long’s peak, the Raiders never ranked worse than fourth in yardage allowed. Between 1983 and 1985, his team held opposing tailbacks to 3.6 yards per carry — the 2017 equivalent of having to give every carry to a 35-year-old Frank Gore. While Mack is a monster in his own right, Long is the player who had the greater overall impact, and his size, athleticism, and smarts suggest that skill would translate to any era on the gridiron.

One final point. Broken Arrow. Khalil Mack wasn’t in Broken Arrow. Howie Long was. Advantage: Howie.

— Christian D’Andrea

In the last three seasons, Mack has racked up 36.5 sacks with at least 10 in each. In Long’s career he topped 10 sacks three times, with 35 over a three-year span.

Does Long have a career resume that far exceeds Mack’s? Definitely.

Was Long a better player in his era? That certainly may be the case. Mack’s had a slightly better start to his career statistically, but the argument that Long made his team better makes sense.

It’s also easy to argue that part of the reason Long was able to thrive is attributable to his supporting cast in Los Angeles. The defensive end was flanked by Pro Bowlers like Rod Martin, Vann McElroy, and Hall of Famer Mike Haynes in 1984. Nose tackle Bill Pickel — 36.5 sacks from 1984-1986 — and franchise all-time sack leader Greg Townsend were enough of a force to ensure teams couldn’t double-team Long in his prime without paying for it elsewhere.

But if the argument is who would I rather have on my defense in the year 2018? Come on, that choice is easy. Mack all day.

With Mack, you’re talking about a guy with a 40-inch vertical, 128-inch broad jump, 4.18-second 20-yard shuttle, and 4.65-second 40-yard dash. The NFL Combine didn’t even exist when Long was a draft prospect in 1981, so we can’t compare numbers — but it’s safe to assume Long’s numbers pale in comparison.

It’s not that Long was an unathletic player, by any means. He was a standout in shot put and discus, and he was even a collegiate boxing champion. But in the last 30 years football players keep getting bigger, faster, and stronger, and Mack is as big, fast, and strong as it gets.

If Mack’s career continues on its current trajectory, he may one day have an argument that he is even better in his era than Long was in the 1980s. But if I need one of them to turn the corner on a modern day offensive tackle, Mack is the choice.

— Adam Stites