The 2024 True Sack Rate (TSR): Week 4 Update

Welcome everyone to the Week 4 update of the 2024 True Sack Rate (TSR) metric where I study and chart every sack of the season from all defensive linemen.

If you are new to the TSR, here are the final individual leaderboards from the 2020 season for edge-rushers and interior D-linemen, and here are the TSR boards for the 2021, 2022 and 2023 seasons.

All-Time TSR Rankings (Individual seasons + Cumulative

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Introduction

From a team perspective, all sacks are positive for a defense, but they can mean very different things for an individual pass-rusher making the play. Player evaluation based on raw sack statistics can often be misleading depending on a variety of different factors.

Players can add a ‘sack’ on the stat-sheet in various ways, including after the quarterback handles the ball for too long (either due to great coverage or the QB failing to recognize the opening in the defense), as a result of a protection breakdown, by tackling the QB at the line of scrimmage, while still being blocked, or by soundly beating the blocker in front of them due to superior athletic ability and/or technique.

By differentiating and qualifying these different pathways to notching a sack into four different categories — using film study, charting and a simple grading scale — we gain valuable insight into which players are earning their production vs. which players are the beneficiaries of fortunate circumstances.

Through this process, we will be able to more accurately evaluate sack and pass-rush production as a whole for the defensive line position.

The TSR will provide us with each rusher’s “sack score,” based on a point system that specifies four different types of sacks and forced fumbles, as outlined below:

1.25 points: Rare High Quality (RHQ) Sack - A 1-on-1 win over a very good (Ex: Andrew Thomas) or elite (Ex: Trent Williams) blocker due to the rusher’s skill, move(s) and/or athletic ability.

Example: (2024) 49ers edge-rusher Nick Bosa beating Vikings LT Christian Darrisaw 1v1 clean with a double-swipe move around the corner.

1.0 point: High Quality (HQ) – A 1-on-1 (or 1-on-2) win over an above average (or below) blocker due to the rusher’s skill, move(s) and/or athletic ability.

Example (2024): Browns edge-rusher Myles Garrett beating Jaguars LT Cam Robinson with a ghost move for the strip sack (this received an additional .5 points for stripping the ball)

.5 points: Low Quality (LQ) – A sack coming as a result of being unblocked or a scheme such as a twist or stunt, in which no special skill or move was required in order to record the sack.

Example (2024): Jets edge-rusher Will McDonald IV getting an unblocked, free run at Patriots QB Jacoby Brissett for the sack.

.5 points: Coverage/Cleanup Sack – An effort sack coming as the result of excellent secondary work, a missed sack from a teammate or a quarterback hanging onto the ball for too long.

Example (2024): 49ers QB Brock Purdy working off of multiple reads before bailing a clean pocket and running into Vikings edge-rusher Andrew Van Ginkel (who is unblocked) for a sack

Both a low-quality and coverage/cleanup sack are valued the same and should be viewed similarly, but the distinction between the two is another layer of context in the evaluation process.

Before we get into the results through 4 games, a few notes:

• 171 sacks by 60 players have been graded this season.

• All stats are from TruMedia.

• Only players with two or more sacks will be graded

• Half sacks were counted as full sacks if the rusher beat the blocker and/or was going to likely take down the quarterback without the help of a teammate.

• If the QB dropped ten yards or more behind the line of scrimmage and an edge-rusher got the sack, the rush was more heavily scrutinized to determine if it was high or low-quality. The threshold that QBs are given on nearly every drop-back is between 9-9.5 yards. Anything past 9.5 yards, and the angle becomes increasingly difficult and unrealistic for tackles to match vs. rushers. If the QB drops beyond that depth, it’s then his responsibility to step up into the pocket or evade the rush on his own. This is admittedly a gray area, which sometimes makes it difficult to assign a grade. In those rare situations, I reached out to at least one outside expert for an extra set of eyes to get their opinion for clarity.

• This will be a regularly updated article with new graphs, videos and takeaways throughout the regular season.

• Below is an example of the data I chart for each player using Lions edge-rusher Aidan Hutchinson’s individual player sheet:

• If you are a paid subscriber and want to see an individual player’s charting information throughout this season, please send me an email with your requests and I will shoot those over.

• Here is the most current (Week 3) update to the 2024 True Pressure Rate

Now for the fun stuff. Let’s get into the results and takeaways from 4 weeks of the 2024 season.

Edge Results through Week 4

Listed below are the top 36 in ‘sack score’ among edge rushers in the NFL (minimum score of 1.5).

Top 25 in snaps/sack among edge rushers (minimum 40 pass-rush snaps)

Top 25 in snaps/HQ sack among edge rushers (minimum 40 pass-rush snaps):

This metric represents the most skilled and efficient sack artists off the edge so far in the 2024 season.

Top 17 in total RHQ + HQ sacks among edge rushers (minimum of 2 total HQ sacks)