The 2025 True Sack Rate (TSR): Week 3 Update
Welcome everyone to the sixth overall season of the True Sack Rate and first update of the 2025 season where I study and chart every sack of the regular season from all defensive linemen with at least two sacks.
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, 2023 and 2024 seasons.
All-Time TSR Rankings (Individual seasons + Cumulative)
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: (2025) Rams DT Poona Ford connecting on a double-swipe-rip to corner on Eagles LG Landon Dickerson at about eight yards behind the line of scrimmage.
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 (2025): Browns edge-rusher Myles Garrett beating Ravens LT Ronnie Stanley using his signature Euro step into a double-swipe to capture the corner at eight yards.
.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 (2025): Chiefs edge-rusher George Karlaftis working off of a RB chip back inside to sack QB Justin Herbert running in his direction.
.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 (2025): Packers edge-rusher Rashan Gary reading and reacting off of the interior pressure before peeling off inside (unblocked) for a cleanup 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 3 games, a few notes:
120 sacks by 35 players have been graded this season.
All stats are from TruMedia.
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 Bengals DE Trey Hendrickson’s 2024 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.
Look at this initial update as a table-setter for the rest of the season. There can often be more noise-than-signal this early in the year with all data and the TSR is no different, but there are some interesting takeaways to dig into nonetheless.
Tracking active players inside the top 100 all-time in career sacks:
Von Miller - 131 (16th)
Cameron Jordan - 123 (T-20th with Robert Mathis)
Calais Campbell - 112.5 (26th)
T.J. Watt - 110 (30th)
Khalil Mack - 108.5 (32nd)
Myles Garrett - 106.5 (T-38th with Jim Jeffcoat)
Danielle Hunter - 101.5 (41st)
Cameron Heyward - 89.5 (T-61st with Tamba Hali & Bryant Young)
Chris Jones - 81.5 (T-79th with Shaun Phillips)
Trey Hendrickson - 79 (T-85th with Chad Brown & Karl Mecklenburg)
Joey Bosa - 73 (T-99th with Rob Burnett)
Now for the fun stuff. Let’s get into the results and takeaways through Week 3 of the 2025 season.
Week 3 Edge Update
Listed below are the top 28 in ‘sack score’ among edge rushers in the NFL (minimum score of 1.5).
It should come as no surprise that Myles Garrett is leading the NFL in sack score through three weeks. Garrett is the best pass-rusher in the league and also the all-time leader in sack score since 2020. No rusher in the game wins more decisively or more often than he does on a 1v1 basis. Despite there typically being a lot of noise rather than signal this early in the year with data, Garrett being atop the leaderboard is not a coincidence at all.
Byron Young of the Rams is a speed-oriented edge-rusher who up until this point is more of a one-speed rusher that lacks a high degree of nuance in his pass-rush plan. He is fast with a high-motor and stresses the high-side of tackles but is still working on polishing his skill-set to become more of a threat inside/down the middle. This is where the signal/noise concept comes in when looking at early season data. Young ranks second in ‘sack score’ due to three HQ sacks (one of them being a strip sack). The caveat is that two of those came against Titans backup RT John Ojukwu. Ojukwu is a subpar pass protector. Young won handily, quickly and clean against him on those two sacks but it is important context to point out and consider nonetheless. Perhaps Young will make a jump this year and be a pleasant surprise as a rusher or maybe this initial standing in the rankings is a bit of a mirage. We shall see!
No edge-rusher charted so far has a rare high-quality sack. Those are always a thrill to discover on film so once we get our first one I will make sure to include video of that with a note (we do have one from an interior rusher that was highlighted earlier in the article from Rams DT Poona Ford).
Top 25 in PR snaps/sack among edge rushers
Top 25 in PR snaps/HQ sack among edge rushers
This metric represents some of the most efficient sack artists off the edge so far in the 2025 season.
Top 21 in DT Sack Score
In a similar vein as Byron Young’s production perhaps being a bit inflated by competition, Colts Tyquan Lewis is experiencing the same good fortune. Lewis also had two HQ sacks against Titans backup RT John Ojukwu. The right tackle spot was a black hole for the Titans in 2024 and it remains so now due to JC Latham being out with a hip injury. Lewis had two excellent reps against Ojukwu for those sacks (using a long-arm bull-rush on both) but take his placement in the rankings with a grain of salt until we see more of the season play out.
Top 21 in PR snaps/sack among interior rushers
Top 21 in PR snaps/HQ sack among interior rushers
This metric represents the most efficient interior sack artists so far in the 2025 season.
Top 39 Overall Sack Score
The TSR will update every 2-3 weeks from here until the final update in Week 18. With each update there will be more detailed analysis baked into the article as the data begins to gain teeth and meaning. The first True Pressure Rate update will release next week (post Week 4) and will update every 2-3 weeks until Week 18.