If you’ve spent any time watching a quarterback try to survive in the pocket this season, you know things have changed. It’s not just that the guys on the edge are getting faster; it’s that the way defensive coordinators are hunting passers has completely evolved. Honestly, the 2025-2026 NFL season will be remembered as the year the "quarterback era" met a brick wall.
We just witnessed Myles Garrett do something many of us thought was impossible. He didn’t just lead the league; he smashed the official single-season record with 23.0 sacks. You've got to appreciate the irony—he hit that mark in Week 18 against Joe Burrow, the guy everyone's been trying to protect for years.
But while Garrett is the face of the pass rush right now, the story of the NFL team leaders in sacks is actually about depth. It's about units like the Denver Broncos, who proved you don't need a 20-sack superstar to ruin an offensive game plan.
The Denver Broncos and the Power of the "Sack Committee"
Kinda crazy, right? The Denver Broncos finished the regular season leading the NFL in total team sacks with 68.0. That’s a massive jump from their 2024 production. What makes this fascinating is that they didn’t have a single player in the top five of the individual leaderboard.
Basically, Denver decided that if they couldn't find a Lawrence Taylor, they’d just send five guys who are all "pretty good" at the same time. Nik Bonitto led their internal chart with 14.0 sacks, but the real damage came from the rotation.
- Nik Bonitto: 14.0 sacks (The closer)
- Jonathon Cooper: 8.0 sacks (The relentless motor)
- Zach Allen: 7.0 sacks (The interior disruptor)
- John Franklin-Myers: 7.5 sacks (The veteran presence)
When you look at the NFL team leaders in sacks, Denver is the blueprint for the modern "positionless" defense. They blitz from the slot—Ja'Quan McMillan even chipped in 4.0 sacks from the cornerback position—and they rotate fresh legs every third down. It’s exhausting for an offensive line to track.
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Why Myles Garrett Just Redefined the Ceiling
We have to talk about that 23-sack season. For years, Michael Strahan’s 22.5 (and T.J. Watt’s tie of that mark) felt like the absolute limit of human performance. Garrett’s 2025 run with the Cleveland Browns was different.
According to Next Gen Stats, Garrett was double-teamed or chipped on a league-high 186 pass rushes. Think about that. Nearly 200 times, a team dedicated two people specifically to stop him, and he still got home 23 times. He recorded eight of his sacks while facing those double teams.
Most people get it wrong—they think sacks are just about speed. It’s actually about "win rate." Garrett's pass-rush win rate sat at 24.6%. He was basically beating his man one out of every four times he tried. That kind of efficiency is what kept the Browns in the playoff hunt despite an offense that, let’s be real, was mostly hot garbage for the first half of the year.
The Top 5 Individual Sack Leaders (Final 2025 Regular Season)
- Myles Garrett (Browns): 23.0
- Brian Burns (Giants): 16.5
- Danielle Hunter (Texans): 16.0
- Aidan Hutchinson (Lions): 14.5
- Nik Bonitto (Broncos): 14.0
The "Almost" Record: Why the Atlanta Falcons Surprised Everyone
If you told a Falcons fan in August they’d finish second in the NFL in sacks per game (3.4), they’d have laughed you out of the stadium. Atlanta has been a pass-rush desert for a decade.
Then came the 2025 draft and the emergence of James Pearce Jr. The rookie ended up with 10.5 sacks, but more importantly, he forced quarterbacks to climb the pocket right into the waiting arms of veteran Grady Jarrett and the rest of that improved front. Atlanta’s jump from 1.8 sacks per game in 2024 to over 3.0 this season is the biggest year-over-year improvement in the league.
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It just goes to show that one "gravity" player—a guy who demands attention—lifts the floor for the entire roster.
The Philosophy Shift: Coverage Sacks vs. Pure Pressure
There’s a debate in NFL circles right now. Do you invest in the pass rush or the secondary?
The 2025 stats for NFL team leaders in sacks suggest that the "coverage sack" is making a comeback. Look at the New York Jets or the Minnesota Vikings. Under Brian Flores, the Vikings allowed only 4.5 yards per play when linebacker Eric Wilson was on the field. Because the coverage was so "sticky," quarterbacks like Caleb Williams and Jordan Love were holding the ball for an average of 3.1 seconds.
In the NFL, if you hold the ball for 3 seconds, you're going to get hit. Period.
The Houston Texans are another great example. They finished high on the list (47.0 team sacks) because Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter are terrifying, sure. But they also have Derek Stingley Jr., who allowed a ridiculous 37.9% completion rate in zone coverage. When the QB has nowhere to throw, the sack totals skyrocket.
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History Still Matters (The All-Time Greats)
While we celebrate the 2025-26 leaders, it’s sort of wild to look back at the "unofficial" history. Before 1982, sacks weren't an official stat, but researchers have gone back to count them.
Bruce Smith still holds the official career crown with 200.0, followed by Reggie White at 198.0. But did you know Deacon Jones likely would have had way more? Some estimates put him at 173.5, and he did that in 14-game seasons.
What Garrett is doing now is incredible, but he’s playing in a 17-game schedule. This is why you'll hear old-school fans put an asterisk on modern records. Honestly, who cares? The athletes are bigger, the offensive tackles are more athletic, and the rules are heavily weighted toward helping the offense. Getting 23 sacks in today's NFL is arguably harder than getting 20 in 1985.
What This Means for Your Team Next Season
If your team didn't make the list of NFL team leaders in sacks, expect a boring draft. Why? Because teams are no longer looking for "decent" edge rushers. They are looking for "disruptors."
The data from this season proves that you need either a Top 3 generational talent (the Garrett/Watt tier) or a rotation of at least four guys who can win a 1-on-1 matchup. The "middle class" of pass rushing is dying. You either have a terrifying front, or you're getting carved up by the elite QBs.
Actionable Insights for the Offseason
- Watch the "Pressure Rate," not just Sacks: Guys like Aidan Hutchinson led the league with 100 pressures but only had 14.5 sacks. He’s actually more disruptive than his sack total suggests.
- Monitor the Cap: Pass rushers are now the second-highest-paid players behind QBs. If your team is paying a "sack leader" who only produces against bad offensive lines, they're overpaying.
- The Rookie Impact: Watch for teams to prioritize "bend" over size. The 2025 leaders were almost all high-twitch athletes, not just 300-pound bruisers.
The hunt for the quarterback isn't slowing down. If anything, 2025 showed us that the "sacks per game" metric is becoming the most reliable predictor of a playoff run. If you can’t hit the QB, you can’t win. It’s that simple.
Next Steps for the 2026 Offseason:
Study the Pass-Rush Win Rate (PRWR) of upcoming free agents rather than raw sack totals. Players who consistently win their matchups but were "unlucky" with finishing sacks often see a massive statistical explosion the following year when paired with better secondary coverage. Look specifically at the Cincinnati Bengals and San Francisco 49ers as teams likely to overhaul their defensive fronts to climb back into the top ten of team sack leaders next year.