If T.J. Watt wants to lead the NFL in sacks for a fourth time, he has his work cut out for him. Though just two weeks into a long year, he’s looking up at a leaderboard that already has early separation. While Watt has been his typical dominant self, he has only two sacks to start the year. That ties him with a host of players for 11th in the league. But the man out in first has already created distance. Detroit Lions DE Aidan Hutchinson is leading the pack with a whopping 5.5 sacks through two weeks thanks to his 4.5-sack outburst in Sunday’s loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He is the first player since Clay Matthews in 2012 to have at last 5.5 sacks through the first two weeks.
And that makes for early ground Watt has to make up. Of course, Watt would be nearly stride for stride with Hutchinson had two sacks in Week 1 against the Atlanta Falcons not been wiped out by penalty, one of which was flat out the wrong call. Had those stood, Watt would sit at four sacks and tied for second-place in the league. But they didn’t count and there’s no NFL leaderboard for could’ve, would’ve should’ve.
Officially, Watt is the first player in history to lead the league in sacks three separate times although Deacon Jones unofficially did it more during his Hall-of-Fame career. And if Watt is going to win his second Defensive Player of the Year Award, he’ll probably need to lead the league in sacks. That wasn’t even good enough last year, Watt losing out to Myles Garrett despite holding the top mark of 19 sacks.
The good news is Watt’s proven he can rack up sacks in bunches. Like Hutchinson, a multi-sack performance is common for him. Since entering the NFL in 2017, Watt has a league-leading 27 games with 1.5-plus sacks. Only two others are even in the 20s: Cleveland’s Myles Garrett (25) and the now-retired Aaron Donald (22).
Another silver lining? Only one player with as many as Hutchinson’s 5.5 sacks through two weeks has finished as the league’s sack leader: Mark Gastineau in 1984. Matthews, who did so in 2010 and 2012, didn’t end the year on top. Nor did Antwan Odom in 2009, who had seven sacks his first two weeks but only one the rest of the year, in part due to injury. But Derrick Thomas in 1998, Charles Haley in 1994, Anthony Smith in 1993, or William Gay in 1983 (the last two weirdly sharing names of former Steelers DBs) ended the year in first place.
That’s just history and Hutchinson figures to be near the top all season. But Watt has plenty of time to bump him out of the top spot.
