Player
T.J. Watt
LB · PIT Steelers
Sacks are valuable; strip-sacks are franchise-altering, because they convert a lost down into a lost possession and often points. Watt leading the era in forced fumbles by a 29 percent margin over second place is the single best statistical expression of why his sack totals undersell him. It is also the direct driver of the with-without split: takeaways, not tackles, are what Pittsburgh loses when he sits.
The possession thief
36 forced fumbles since 2017. Nobody else in football has 30.
RareForced fumbles, all players, 2017-2025 regular season
| Rank | Player | Forced fumbles |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | T.J. Watt | 36 |
| 2 | Khalil Mack | 28 |
| 3 | Myles Garrett | 23 |
| 4 | DeMarcus Lawrence | 22 |
| T5 | Joey Bosa | 21 |
| T5 | Lavonte David | 21 |
Since Watt entered the league, no player has forced 30 fumbles. He has forced 36, eight clear of Khalil Mack, and 25 of them came on his own sacks. The physics favor him: league-wide, a sack shakes the ball loose on 13.1 percent of snaps versus 1.2 percent of all other plays, an eleven-fold difference, and no one converts that arithmetic into takeaways like Watt. He does not just end plays; he ends possessions.
Why it matters. Sacks are valuable; strip-sacks are franchise-altering, because they convert a lost down into a lost possession and often points. Watt leading the era in forced fumbles by a 29 percent margin over second place is the single best statistical expression of why his sack totals undersell him. It is also the direct driver of the with-without split: takeaways, not tackles, are what Pittsburgh loses when he sits.
Twice in three years he was 40 percent of Pittsburgh's entire pass rush by himself.
AnomalyWatt's share of all Pittsburgh sacks by season (regular season)
| Season | PIT team sacks | Watt sacks | Watt share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 54 | 14.5 | 26.9% |
| 2020 | 56 | 15.0 | 26.8% |
| 2021 | 55 | 22.5 | 40.9% |
| 2022 (injured, 10 games) | 40 | 5.5 | 13.8% |
| 2023 | 47 | 19.0 | 40.4% |
| 2024 | 40 | 11.5 | 28.8% |
| 2025 | 48 | 7.0 | 14.6% |
In 2021 and again in 2023, more than 40 percent of every sack Pittsburgh recorded belonged to one man. For a defense that blitzes as much as any in football and rotates a full stable of rushers, having two-fifths of the production route through a single edge is an extraordinary concentration, and the 2022 injury season shows the counterfactual: the team's sack total dropped from 55 to 40 the year he played ten games.
Why it matters. Sack concentration cuts both ways. It certifies Watt as the source of the pass rush rather than a beneficiary of it, but it also means Pittsburgh's whole defensive identity carries single-player risk: the 2022 and 2025 rows are what the defense looks like when his share collapses. History says concentrated pass rushes stay concentrated, so the health of one edge rusher remains the highest-leverage variable on the roster.
The Garrett question
22.5 sacks in 15 games in 2021 tied the single-season record. It took Myles Garrett until 2025 to pass it.
MilestoneBest single-season sack totals since 1999 (regular season)
| Rank | Player | Season | Sacks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Myles Garrett | 2025 | 23.0 |
| T2 | Michael Strahan | 2001 | 22.5 |
| T2 | T.J. Watt | 2021 | 22.5 |
| T4 | Jared Allen | 2011 | 22.0 |
| T4 | Justin Houston | 2014 | 22.0 |
| T6 | J.J. Watt | 2012 | 20.5 |
| T6 | J.J. Watt | 2014 | 20.5 |
| T6 | Aaron Donald | 2018 | 20.5 |
For four years, Watt's 2021 shared the modern record with Strahan's 2001 at 22.5, and Watt's claim carried an asterisk in his favor: he did it in 15 games, 1.5 sacks per game, sitting out two full games with injuries. Garrett's 23-sack 2025 finally took the crown outright. The top five of this list now features two active rivals in the same division, which is as good as edge-rusher theater gets.
Why it matters. Single-season sack records are the position's four-minute mile, and per-game rate is the fair lens for comparing them: Watt's 1.5 per game in 2021 remains the best rate of any 20-sack season in the sample. That the record now belongs to a division rival he faces twice a year turns a career milestone into a live rivalry, and it reframes 2021 not as a peak he owed the record to, but as the highest-rate rushing season of the era.
Drafted 29 picks apart in 2017: Garrett has the sacks, Watt has everything that ends possessions.
ComparisonThe 2017 class rivals, career regular season 2017-2025
| Metric | T.J. Watt (pick 30) | Myles Garrett (pick 1) |
|---|---|---|
| Sacks | 115.0 | 125.5 |
| QB hits | 244 | 239 |
| Forced fumbles | 36 | 23 |
The 2017 draft produced both of the era's defining edge rushers, 29 picks apart. Nine seasons in, Garrett leads the sack race 125.5 to 115.0, both miles clear of third place (Danielle Hunter, 96.0). But flip to disruption: Watt leads the entire league since 2017 in QB hits (244) and forced fumbles (36, to Garrett's 23). Garrett's resume peaks higher on the stat every award tracks; Watt's does more of the thing that hands his offense the ball.
Why it matters. The comparison matters because it is really a debate about what an edge rusher is for. Sacks are the headline currency, and Garrett's edge there is real and growing after his 23-sack 2025. But QB hits measure every play a rusher ruins, and forced fumbles measure possessions stolen; Watt leads both across the identical nine-season window. Two franchises in the same division made opposite calls on the same position in the same draft, and both calls delivered.
The family race is over at nine seasons: T.J. 115 sacks, J.J. 96.
ComparisonWatt brothers, first nine NFL seasons (regular season)
| Player | Window | Sacks | Sacks per season |
|---|---|---|---|
| T.J. Watt | 2017-2025 | 115.0 | 12.8 |
| J.J. Watt | 2011-2019 | 96.0 | 10.7 |
J.J. Watt's first nine seasons produced two 20-sack years and a legend. T.J.'s first nine produced 115 regular-season sacks to J.J.'s 96 over the same career stage, a 20 percent edge, plus the era's forced-fumble crown. The younger brother has been more durable at the same age too: J.J.'s window included two seasons nearly erased by injury, while T.J.'s worst absence is a 10-game 2022. Same house, same position, and the sequel is outproducing the original.
Why it matters. Career-stage comparisons beat raw career totals because they hold age and mileage equal. Through nine seasons apiece, T.J. is meaningfully ahead of one of the most decorated defensive players ever on the position's headline stat, and the gap is durability as much as peak: pass rushing ages through availability. It is the cleanest argument that the family's second act is on the steeper all-time track.
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