Sports Reference Blog
Pre-1982 Sacks Added To Pro Football Reference
Posted by Mike Lynch on July 12, 2021
The NFL has only officially counted player sacks since 1982, which means sack records and leaderboards present an incomplete history of pass rushing. In many cases we accept these holes in the official record and move on. After all, we don't know how many rushing yards Jim Thorpe had, passing yards Paddy Driscoll had or even how many blocked shots Wilt Chamberlain had. Heck, we don't even "officially" know how many tackles anyone had in 2020 (or any other season). However, thanks to Official Gamebooks, 'unofficial' tackle totals get published in many places (including here). In the case of sacks, thanks to decades of research by John Turney and Nick Webster, we have a very thorough accounting of the statistic all the way back to 1960. Given that accounting for these 'unofficial' statistics allows us to paint a richer picture of the history of the game, we think it is a no-brainer to present them on Pro Football Reference, allowing fans to gain a deeper appreciation of some of football's biggest stars in the 1960s and 1970s. This isn't terribly different from presenting RBI totals for baseball players from before 1920 (the first season the statistic was "official"). These additions allow us to print year-by-year and career sacks totals for not just legends such as Deacon Jones (173.5), Jack Youngblood (151.5), Alan Page (148.5), Carl Eller (133.5) and Joe Greene (77.5), but also for less recognized stars like Coy Bacon (130.5), Cedrick Hardman (122.5) and Jack Gregory (106.0) whose greatness and impact can now be more readily quantified.
Turney and Webster, stalwart members of the Pro Football Researchers Association, have been compiling these numbers for nearly 30 years. To read a bit about their work and methods, we would recommend checking out these articles from the Athletic, Hartford Courant, New York Times and ESPN's old Page 2. The important things to know are that these numbers are based upon review of official play-by-plays, watching game film, photographs and coaches' stats. The work continues to this day as new information is discovered, particularly for numbers from the early 1960s.
It's remarkable how thorough the research is, given the many obstacles. 99% of sacks from the 1970 merger to 1981 are accounted for. From 1966 to 1969, it's closer to 95% (both AFL and NFL). 1961-64 is about 80% coverage. About two-thirds of sacks in 1960 are accounted for.
With the new data incorporated into the site, here's how the "unofficial" NFL sacks leaderboard (back to 1960) looks:
Rank | Player | Sk | Years | Tm |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Bruce Smith+ | 200.0 | 1985-2003 | 2TM |
2 | Reggie White+ | 198.0 | 1985-2000 | 3TM |
3 | Deacon Jones+ | 173.5 | 1961-1974 | 3TM |
4 | Kevin Greene+ | 160.0 | 1985-1999 | 4TM |
5 | Julius Peppers | 159.5 | 2002-2018 | 3TM |
6 | Jack Youngblood+ | 151.5 | 1971-1984 | ram |
7 | Chris Doleman+ | 150.5 | 1985-1999 | 3TM |
8 | Alan Page+ | 148.5 | 1967-1981 | 2TM |
9 | Lawrence Taylor+ | 142.0 | 1981-1993 | nyg |
10 | Michael Strahan+ | 141.5 | 1993-2007 | nyg |
11 | Jason Taylor+ | 139.5 | 1997-2011 | 3TM |
12 | Terrell Suggs | 139.0 | 2003-2019 | 3TM |
13 | DeMarcus Ware | 138.5 | 2005-2016 | 2TM |
14 | Richard Dent+ | 137.5 | 1983-1997 | 4TM |
John Randle+ | 137.5 | 1990-2003 | 2TM | |
16 | Jared Allen | 136.0 | 2004-2015 | 4TM |
Rickey Jackson+ | 136.0 | 1981-1995 | 2TM | |
18 | John Abraham | 133.5 | 2000-2014 | 3TM |
Carl Eller+ | 133.5 | 1964-1979 | 2TM | |
20 | Leslie O'Neal | 132.5 | 1986-1999 | 3TM |
21 | Al Baker | 131.0 | 1978-1990 | 4TM |
22 | Coy Bacon | 130.5 | 1968-1981 | 4TM |
Jim Marshall | 130.5 | 1960-1979 | 2TM | |
24 | Claude Humphrey+ | 130.0 | 1968-1981 | 2TM |
25 | Derrick Thomas+ | 126.5 | 1989-1999 | kan |
And here's the "unofficial" single-season leaderboard. As you can see, Al Baker's 23.0 in his 1978 rookie season is the unofficial record:
Rank | Player | Sk | Year | Tm |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Al Baker (21) | 23.0 | 1978 | DET |
2 | Michael Strahan+ (29) | 22.5 | 2001 | NYG |
3 | Jared Allen (29) | 22.0 | 2011 | MIN |
Mark Gastineau (27) | 22.0 | 1984 | NYJ | |
Justin Houston (25) | 22.0 | 2014 | KAN | |
Deacon Jones+ (25) | 22.0 | 1964 | RAM | |
Deacon Jones+ (29) | 22.0 | 1968 | RAM | |
8 | Coy Bacon (34) | 21.5 | 1976 | CIN |
Deacon Jones+ (28) | 21.5 | 1967 | RAM | |
10 | Chris Doleman+ (27) | 21.0 | 1989 | MIN |
Reggie White+ (25) | 21.0 | 1987 | PHI | |
12 | Aaron Donald (27) | 20.5 | 2018 | LAR |
Jim Katcavage (28) | 20.5 | 1963 | NYG | |
Joe Klecko (27) | 20.5 | 1981 | NYJ | |
Lawrence Taylor+ (27) | 20.5 | 1986 | NYG | |
J.J. Watt (23) | 20.5 | 2012 | HOU | |
J.J. Watt (25) | 20.5 | 2014 | HOU | |
18 | Mark Gastineau (24) | 20.0 | 1981 | NYJ |
Harvey Martin (26) | 20.0 | 1977 | DAL | |
Derrick Thomas+ (23) | 20.0 | 1990 | KAN | |
DeMarcus Ware (26) | 20.0 | 2008 | DAL |
We hope site users enjoy this new information and the fuller picture it paints for some of the greatest defensive players in NFL history. We will continue to print the official leaderboards since 1982 since we realized different users have different needs, but we hope this new data complements the official data and helps bring awareness to some forgotten players with little else in the way of statistical records. We have plans to continue to flesh out our historical defensive statistics for individual players, so stay tuned.
Turney and Webster would also like to make it clear that this was more than a two-person job. They would like to thank the many people who helped them gain access to valuable information, documents and film including Scott Grams, Brett Daniels, Ace Cacchiotti and the countless NFL PR directors who helped. They are grateful for the assistance.
If outstanding information thank you
Great work guys
This is absolutely amazing. Kudos to everyone involved.
We should also now be able to determine that Fran Tarkenton is the unofficial leader in times sacked as QB with 572.
So glad to see Bruce and Reggie getting their due!
You've credited Gino Marchetti with 56.0 sacks in his last five full seasons 1960-64, but he doesn't appear on your Unofficial Leaderboard (since 1960) where it seems like he should be tied with four others at #240. Maybe he didn't meet some threshold for # of seasons or games?
Great work! Now if Gino could only get credit for his first nine seasons...
Hi, great stuff! Is there any way possible you could go WAY back and find Geno Marchetti's sack totals? My dad is in his 90s now and he loves to talk about the old Baltimore Colts. He would love to know how Marchetti stacks up to theses other guys.
Thank you,
Roger
Wasn't this all accomplished back when O-linemen couldn't snatch & grab??
I'll ask the PFR crew about Marchetti's omission from the leaderboard, thanks for pointing that out.
This underscores how ridiculous it was to make Alex Karras wait all those years before being added to the Hall.
All of the Packers sacks are showing as 0.0 for 1960. I'm pretty certain that research by John Turney and Nick Webster had Willie Davis' (Packers) sacks at 5.5 for 1960. Can you please advise? Thanks.
I noticed on your annual league passing stats, to have sacks going back to 1949 for league totals. How did you do that...is that right or is it an error. I’d didn’t see any mention of anything in your announcement before 1960.
Yes, times sacked at team level has been available for a while. But research would need to be done to identify who individually was responsible for each of the sacks.
Huh...I didn’t know that! Thank you!
1960 Packers required a little more verification but they sent us the updated data just now so that team has been filled in: https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/D/DaviWi01.htm