List of National Football League annual sacks leaders

Michael Strahan (top) achieved 22.5 sacks during the 2001 season, and T. J. Watt (bottom) also achieved 22.5 sacks during the 2021 season, tying the NFL record with Strahan.

This is a list of National Football League players who have led the regular season in sacks each year. Sacks became an official statistic in 1982. Michael Strahan of the New York Giants and T. J. Watt of the Pittsburgh Steelers hold the record with 22.5, which Strahan had during the 2001 season, and Watt during the 2021 season. In 2013, the NFL created the Deacon Jones Award to recognize the season leader in sacks. There have only been two players who have led the league in sacks with 2 different teams, Jared Allen (2007 with the Chiefs and 2011 with the Vikings) and Kevin Greene (1994 with the Steelers and 1996 with the Panthers). The Chiefs and the Vikings have had the most players lead the NFL in sacks with 4. Eight players have led the NFL in sacks twice, and nobody has led the league three times.

NFL sack leaders

Key

	Pro Football Hall of Fame member
^	The player is an active player
*	Set record
(#)	Denotes the number of times a player appears in this list

Jared Allen led the league in sacks in 2007 and 2011.

Al Baker is the unofficial NFL record holder with 23 sacks during the 1978 NFL season.

Note that the sack totals from 1960 to 1981 are considered unofficial by the NFL.

Table updated through the 2021 NFL season.

Year	Player	Team	Sacks	Games
1960	Gino Marchetti	Baltimore Colts	11.0*	12
1961	Gene Lipscomb	Pittsburgh Steelers	17.5*	14
1962	Jim Katcavage	New York Giants	16.0	14
1963	Jim Katcavage (2)	New York Giants (2)	20.5*	14
1964	Deacon Jones	Los Angeles Rams	20.5*	14
1965	Deacon Jones (2)	Los Angeles Rams (2)	19.0	14
1966	George Andrie	Dallas Cowboys	18.5	14
1967	Deacon Jones (3)	Los Angeles Rams (3)	21.5*	14
1968	Deacon Jones (4)	Los Angeles Rams (4)	22.0*	14
1969	Carl Eller	Minnesota Vikings	15.0	14
	Deacon Jones (5)	Los Angeles Rams (5)
1970	Tony Cline	Oakland Raiders	17.5	14
1971	Cedrick Hardman	San Francisco 49ers	18.0	14
1972	Jack Gregory	New York Giants (3)	18.5	14
1973	Bill Stanfill	Miami Dolphins	18.5	14
1974	Fred Dryer	Los Angeles Rams (6 & 7)	15.0	14
	Jack Youngblood
1975	John Dutton	Baltimore Colts (2)	18.0	14
1976	Coy Bacon	Cincinnati Bengals	21.5	14
1977	Harvey Martin	Dallas Cowboys (2)	20.0	14
1978	Al Baker	Detroit Lions	23.0*	16
1979	Jack Youngblood (2)	Los Angeles Rams (8)	20.5	16
1980	Al Baker (2)	Detroit Lions (2)	17.5	15
	Gary Johnson	San Diego Chargers
1981	Joe Klecko	New York Jets	20.5	16
1982	Doug Martin	Minnesota Vikings (2)	11.5	9
1983	Mark Gastineau	New York Jets	19.0	16
1984	Mark Gastineau (2)	New York Jets (3)	22.0	16
1985	Richard Dent	Chicago Bears	17.0	16
1986	Lawrence Taylor	New York Giants (4)	20.5	16
1987	Reggie White	Philadelphia Eagles	21.0	12
1988	Reggie White (2)	Philadelphia Eagles (2)	18.0	16
1989	Chris Doleman	Minnesota Vikings (3)	21.0	16
1990	Derrick Thomas	Kansas City Chiefs	20.0	15
1991	Pat Swilling	New Orleans Saints	17.0	16
1992	Clyde Simmons	Philadelphia Eagles (3)	19.0	16
1993	Neil Smith	Kansas City Chiefs (2)	15.0	16
1994	Kevin Greene	Pittsburgh Steelers (2)	14.0	16
1995	Bryce Paup	Buffalo Bills	17.5	15
1996	Kevin Greene (2)	Carolina Panthers	14.5	16
1997	John Randle	Minnesota Vikings (4)	15.5	16
1998	Michael Sinclair	Seattle Seahawks	16.5	16
1999	Kevin Carter	St. Louis Rams (9)	17.0	16
2000	La'Roi Glover	New Orleans Saints (2)	17.0	16
2001	Michael Strahan	New York Giants (5)	22.5	16
2002	Jason Taylor	Miami Dolphins (2)	18.5	16
2003	Michael Strahan (2)	New York Giants (6)	18.5	16
2004	Dwight Freeney	Indianapolis Colts	16.0	16
2005	Derrick Burgess	Oakland Raiders (2)	16.0	16
2006	Shawne Merriman	San Diego Chargers (2)	17.0	12
2007	Jared Allen	Kansas City Chiefs (3)	15.5	14
2008	DeMarcus Ware	Dallas Cowboys (3)	20.0	16
2009	Elvis Dumervil	Denver Broncos	17.0	16
2010	DeMarcus Ware (2)	Dallas Cowboys (4)	15.5	16
2011	Jared Allen (2)	Minnesota Vikings (5)	22.0	16
2012	J. J. Watt^	Houston Texans	20.5	16
2013	Robert Mathis	Indianapolis Colts	19.5	16
2014	Justin Houston^	Kansas City Chiefs (4)	22.0	16
2015	J. J. Watt^ (2)	Houston Texans (2)	17.5	16
2016	Vic Beasley	Atlanta Falcons	15.5	16
2017	Chandler Jones^	Arizona Cardinals	17.0	16
2018	Aaron Donald^	Los Angeles Rams (10)	20.5	16
2019	Shaquil Barrett^	Tampa Bay Buccaneers	19.5	16
2020	T. J. Watt^	Pittsburgh Steelers (3)	15.0	15
2021	T. J. Watt^ (2)	Pittsburgh Steelers (4)	22.5	15

Most sack titles

Titles	Player	Years	Team
5	Deacon Jones	1964, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969	Los Angeles Rams
2	Jim Katcavage	1962 & 1963	New York Giants
	Jack Youngblood	1974 & 1979	Los Angeles Rams
	Al Baker	1978 & 1980	Detroit Lions
	Mark Gastineau	1983 & 1984	New York Jets
	Reggie White	1987 & 1988	Philadelphia Eagles
	Kevin Greene	1994 & 1998	Pittsburgh Steelers / Carolina Panthers
	Michael Strahan	2001 & 2003	New York Giants
	DeMarcus Ware	2008 & 2010	Dallas Cowboys
	Jared Allen	2007 & 2011	Kansas City Chiefs / Minnesota Vikings
	J. J. Watt	2012 & 2015	Houston Texans
	T. J. Watt	2020 & 2021	Pittsburgh Steelers

AFL sack leaders

Year	Player	Team	Sacks	Games
1960	Mel Branch Riley Morris	Dallas Texans Oakland Raiders	10.0	14 12
1961	Ed Husmann Ron Nery	Houston Oilers San Diego Chargers	8.0	14
1962	Ed Husmann (2)	Houston Oilers (2)	10.0	14
1963	Larry Eisenhauer	Boston Patriots	8.0	14
1964	Tom Sestak	Buffalo Bills	15.5	14
1965	Larry Eisenhauer (2)	Boston Patriots (2)	9.5	14
1966	Verlon Biggs	New York Jets	12.5	14
1967	Ike Lassiter	Oakland Raiders (2)	17.0	14
1968	Gerry Philbin	New York Jets (2)	14.0	14
1969	Steve DeLong	San Diego Chargers (2)	15.5	14

See also

• List of National Football League career sacks leaders
• List of National Football League annual interceptions leaders
• List of National Football League annual forced fumbles leaders

References

• Pro-Football-Reference.com