Barring severe injury, T.J. Watt will cross the 100-sack threshold in 2024. Sitting at 96.5, he’ll do something no Pittsburgh Steeler has ever done: joining the triple-digit sack club. One officially occupied by only 43 players.
If Watt remains on pace, he’ll be one of the fastest to ever do it. In fact, assuming Watt can record 3.5 sacks within his first eight games, he’ll be the second-quickest to it since the stat became official in 1982.
The only player who has done it definitively faster is Reggie White. A reminder that the answer to every impressive sack statistic is, “Reggie White.”
Currently, here’s the top-eight leaderboard along with Watt’s current figures at the bottom.
Quickest To 100 Sacks, Official NFL History
| Player | Games To 100th Sack |
|---|---|
| Reggie White | 96 |
| DeMarcus Ware | 113 |
| Bruce Smith | 115 |
| Lawrence Taylor | 115 |
| J.J. Watt | 120 |
| Jared Allen | 122 |
| Von Miller | 124 |
| Chandler Jones | 125 |
| T.J. Watt | 104 games (96.5 sacks) |
Watt should stay ahead of the pack and current second-place pass rusher DeMarcus Ware. He also should beat big brother J.J. Watt by a handful of games, minimum. Think about the names Watt’s likely to finish ahead of. Bruce Smith, the NFL’s all-time sack leader. Lawrence Taylor, arguably the most feared and dominant player in any era of football. And all the other sack artists over the last 40-plus years.
It’s a pace that is hard to even wrap your head around, Watt averaging nearly one sack per game. Unofficially, there are others who beat that mark, including Deacon Jones, who did it in roughly 95 games during his incredible career (there are no official game-by-game logs, but we know Pro Football Reference has him tallied for 106 sacks through his first seven seasons, 98 games).
This stat isn’t impacted by his 2022 injuries. Though Watt missed half the season with a pectoral injury, because he sat out those games, the meter stopped running. It hurt other categories, his race to beat James Harrison’s record and his “on pace” for in career sacks. But once healthy, he returned to form and was back to his dominant self in 2023. Watt set an official NFL record by leading the league in sacks for the third time, something none of the illustrious names on this list can boast.
To put his mark in perspective, here are the career sacks totals Watt’s finished each season with.
Watt Year-By-Year Sack Totals
2017 – 7 .0
2018 – 20.0
2019 – 34.5
2020 – 49.5
2021 – 72.0
2022 – 77.5
2023 – 96.5
The jumps between 2020-2021 and 2022-2023 are just absurd. To begin 2020 under 50 and leave with over 70. To enter 2022 under 80 and finish closing in on that 100-mark.
Soon enough, Watt could take the lead in sacks by active players. Von Miller is the current leader with 123.5 but his career soon coming to an end. The ever-underrated Cameron Jordan sits second at 117.5. The only player ahead who reasonably has a few seasons left is Khalil Mack, who just crossed the 100-sack threshold with 101.5 (if you’re wondering, it took him 150 games to reach 100).
Though it still seems far away, what about Watt’s push for the all-time sack record? Bruce Smith sits in first place, the only player with 200 career sacks, and he’s held the record for over 20 years. Watt isn’t even halfway there but at the rate he’s picking up sacks, roughly 20 per season, it’s a possibility. More conservatively, top 10 feels like a given barring something that severely shortens or hinders his career. Richard Dent and John Randle are tied for 10th at 137.5. Watt could legitimately get there in two years and definitely in three.
As he’s repeatedly said, Watt’s focus is on wins. Amazing as his career has been, the one category he’s missing production in is playoff victories. Seven years into his career and he still has zero of them. That’s far from all his fault, and he was out with an injury in last year’s Wild Card loss, but it’s a streak he’d like to snap at the expense of sack paces and records. But the more times he gets after the quarterback, the higher the odds Pittsburgh has of winning. And Watt’s sacking quarterbacks at a literally historic rate.
