Good article from Peter King this morning on J.J. Watt and the injury struggles he dealt with last year.  King also noted that Watt has 69 sacks over the last four seasons, the most in the NFL.  In fact, that’s the second most by any player in any four-year stretch over at least the last 31 years. FRom 1985 to 1988, Reggie White had 70 sacks, and he did it in seven fewer games (he missed the first three games of ’85 due to being a member of USFL, ^[1]The Eagles, after starting 0-2, paid a million dollars to Memphis to essentially buy White from the league. and then four games in ’87 due to the players’ strike.)  Of course, White did play in a friendlier era for sacks (2.63 sacks per game vs. 2.37 over the last four years), so cross-era comparisons always have their limitations.

But I thought it would be interesting, especially in light of Jared Allen retiring, to look at the leaders in sacks on a trailing four year basis:

I’ve written before about Simeon Rice and how he has been underrated by the Hall of Fame; consider that when he lead the NFL in sacks from ’02 to ’05, he did so during an era when the Bucs faced the fewest pass attempts in the entire league! By comparison, Houston has been right at the league average in pass attempts faced over the past four seasons. And, when Rice recorded 16.5 sacks for the Cardinals in ’99, Arizona saw the 6th fewest pass attempts that season, too.

From ’08 to ’13, Jared Allen had 85.5 sacks, DeMarcus Ware had 83.5 sacks, and no other player was over 70 sacks. The Vikings saw about 100 more pass attempts over that span, so if you want to split hairs, you could make the case for Ware over Allen during that period. But Allen has built up an impressive Hall of Fame resume: two seasons where he was the sack king, a third where he ranked second, and another where he ranked fifth.

Of course, Allen is no Watt, but few ever have been. Also remarkable about Watt is his stretch from ’11 to ’14 makes the cut, and he is tied with Derrick Thomas for the youngest player on the list. Unless Watt does retire early, he has a real shot at breaking the all-time sack record. It’s always risky to project too far in the future, but Watt is 17.0 sacks ahead of where Bruce Smith was at this stage in his career. Smith had 19 sacks during his age 38 through 40 seasons, though, but also had a 1.5 sack season at age 28 due to injury. It’s a long ways away, but it’s certainly conceivable that Watt could challenge Smith’s 200-sack record.