If quarterback play is the most valuable thing in football, then the most valuable thing on the defensive side of the ball is getting after the quarterback.
NFL teams seem to agree with that sentiment as well. In this offseason, three edge rushers have earned extensions that will pay them at least $35 million per year in average annual salary – Myles Garrett, Maxx Crosby, and Danielle Hunter – as money at that position continues to rise.
But with a higher salary comes higher expectations. As each of those players looks to prove their team right by investing in them, let’s take a look at the 10 highest-sack seasons in NFL history.
T8. Lawrence Taylor: 20.5 (1986)
Taylor’s 1986 campaign is viewed by some as one of the best ever by a defensive player. He won his third Defensive Player of the Year Award and became the first defensive player in NFL history to unanimously win MVP. In the postseason, Taylor recorded a pick-six off Joe Montana in the divisional round en route to winning a Super Bowl.
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After impressing as a rookie in 2011, Watt popped off in his second season. He recorded 20.5 sacks and had an NFL-record 39 tackles for loss that year. He also had two forced fumbles, helping him win his first of three Defensive Player of the Year Awards.
T8. J.J. Watt: 20.5 (2014)
Two years after he crossed the 20-sack threshold, Watt did it again in 2014. Even though he set the tackles for loss record in 2012, some not only regard 2014 as the best year in Watt’s career, but also the best season ever for an edge rusher. Watt led the league in fumble recoveries (four) and tackles for loss (29) to go with five forced fumbles that season. Additionally, he recorded an interception, which he returned 80 yards for a touchdown.
Watt’s 2014 season was also historic by Pro Football Focus’ standards. He recorded 119 pressures that season, the most ever recorded by a player since PFF began tracking the stat in 2006.
Along with Watt and Taylor, Donald is one of three players in NFL history to win Defensive Player of the Year three times. The best of those three seasons for the former Los Angeles Rams star came in 2018, when he recorded 20.5 sacks, 59 total tackles, a league-leading 25 tackles for loss and four forced fumbles. He also had 106 pressures that year, per PFF.
You don’t fall two sacks short of having the most sacks in NFL history without having an all-time great sack season. White had 21 sacks, along with 76 total tackles, when he was with the Philadelphia Eagles in 1987. It marked the first of two straight years in which White led the league in sacks, which only a few other players have ever done. It was also one of his five seasons with 15-plus sacks and nine with 10-plus sacks, which are both the most in NFL history.
T-6. Chris Doleman: 21 (1989)
Nearly two decades after the Minnesota Vikings had their “Purple People Eaters” defense, they had someone who would’ve fit right in with that group in the late 1980s. Doleman recorded 21 sacks in 1989, marking a surge into stardom for him as he also had 94 total tackles and five forced fumbles that year.
T-3. Mark Gastineau: 22 (1984)
In the final years of the Jets‘ “New York Sack Exchange” era, Gastineau had what was at the time the best season ever for a pass rusher in NFL history. He recorded 22 sacks in 1984, getting a scoop-and-score touchdown that year.
T-3. Jared Allen: 22 (2011)
In the midst of his seven-year streak of double-digit sacks, Allen broke the 20-sack mark in 2011. He had 22 that year, leading the league in sacks for the second time in his career. He also had 66 total tackles and four forced fumbles, falling just seven votes short of winning Defensive Player of the Year.
T-3. Justin Houston: 22 (2014)
While Watt’s 20.5-sack season won him Defensive Player of the Year in 2014, he didn’t have the most sacks that season. Houston recorded 22 sacks with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2014, adding 69 combined tackles and four forced fumbles to go with them. Four of his sacks came in the Chiefs’ regular-season finale, surprisingly bringing him within a half-sack of the all-time record.
T-1. Michael Strahan: 22.5 (2001)
Strahan broke Gastineau’s 17-year record in 2001, doing so when he took down Brett Favre in the New York Giants‘ regular-season finale loss to the Green Bay Packers. Some have debated whether Favre purposely took a dive in that game to allow Strahan to break the record, but it still went down as a sack. Strahan actually recorded 3.5 sacks in the week prior, giving him the opportunity to break Gastineau’s record.
Watt matched Strahan’s record in 2021. While the 2021 season marked the first year the NFL played 17 regular-season games, Watt only played in 15 games. Just like Strahan, Watt also went off in the penultimate week of the regular season to allow him to match the record, recording four sacks in a game against the Cleveland Browns. The Pittsburgh Steelers‘ great recorded 64 total tackles and five forced fumbles that year, too.
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