Jack Sawyer College Career Sacks Contextualization

Now that the Pittsburgh Steelers have selected their 2025 draft class, we will be breaking down those seven players more in-depth as the offseason progresses. Personally, I love to do contextualization of players in niche areas. Today, I will present one on OLB Jack Sawyer, the Steelers’ fourth-round selection this year out of Ohio State. Specifically, this contextualization will revolve around Sawyer’s college career sacks.

For starters, the table at the bottom of this post includes the play-by-play data of all 23 sacks that Sawyer recorded during his college career at Ohio State, according to Pro Football Focus charting. The data includes whether the sack was scored as a full one or half one, the time to sack, alignment side, turnovers forced, and number of defensive players that rushed. Each play is linked to a video so that anyone reading this post can view it for themselves.

Don’t get caught up in the full or half sack designations here, as this is only how the NCAA officially scored. Additionally, there are a few easy ones included in these 26 clips.

One of the first main takeaways when it comes to this Sawyer college career sack contextualization is that all but one of the 23 came with him lined up on the left side of Ohio State’s defensive front. Only one included Sawyer lined up elsewhere, and that included him being off the ball and in the middle of the field.

Most of Sawyer’s college career sacks came with him being part of a four-man rush. Additionally, Sawyer forced fumbles on four of his 23 college career sacks at Ohio State.

As far as Sawyer’s time-to-sacks during his college career, which is subjective to some degree, I have 14 of the 23 coming in under 3 seconds. Only four came 4 seconds or longer after the football was snapped. I have his average snap to sack time at 3.2 seconds on all 26 plays.

As you will note in these 26 clips, Sawyer likes to win a lot of times with power, often pushing the tackle, tight end or running back deep into the pocket. He uses his hands quite a bit in a few of these sacks, as well. Against Texas, in the final sacks of his college career, Sawyer swipes down that opposing tackle’s hands and then gains the edge.

While not freakishly athletic, Sawyer’s change of direction and quickness is enough to allow him to occasionally win inside. There are also two sacks in this contextualization that include him stunting from the outside to the inside.

Sawyer also seems to have a good sense of where the quarterback is or where he’s going.

Overall, Sawyer’s sack reel probably won’t blow many people away, but it’s certainly good enough and includes a few high-quality ones. I can remember back to the college sack reel of Steelers OLB T.J. Watt that I put together after he was drafted, and it wasn’t overly mind-blowing either. Watt obviously has gone on to become one of the NFL’s best pass rushers.

For a player mostly regarded for his play against the run in college, Sawyer certainly held his own in college and more as a pass rusher.

Watch these 26 clips included in this contextualization and let me know your takeaways on Sawyer’s college career sacks.