Player
Dorance Armstrong
DL · Commanders
Dorance Armstrong: facts drawn from the play-by-play.
37.5 career sacks across 8 seasons — a rotational specialist who blossomed into a starter at age 26.
TrendArmstrong by season (regular season)
| Season | Team | Sacks | QB Hits | TFL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | DAL | 0.5 | 3 | 1 |
| 2019 | DAL | 2.0 | 4 | 1 |
| 2020 | DAL | 0.0 | 1 | 1 |
| 2021 | DAL | 5.0 | 13 | 4 |
| 2022 | DAL | 8.5 | 17 | 9 |
| 2023 | DAL | 7.5 | 13 | 7 |
| 2024 | WAS | 8.5 | 18 | 10 |
| 2025 | WAS | 5.5 | 7 | 7 |
Armstrong's first three years in Dallas (2.5 sacks combined, 2018-2020) read like a 4th-round pick who wasn't making it. Then 2021 hit (5.0 sacks), and his next four years have produced 29.5 sacks — a true late breakout.
His 2022 (8.5 sacks) and 2024 with Washington (8.5 sacks, 18 QB hits, 10 TFL) are nearly identical signature seasons. The 2024 line is the most complete — career highs in QB hits and TFL alongside the tied-career-high sack total.
Sacks per season
| Season | Sacks |
|---|---|
| 2018 | 0.5 |
| 2019 | 2 |
| 2020 | 0 |
| 2021 | 5 |
| 2022 | 8.5 |
| 2023 | 7.5 |
| 2024 | 8.5 |
| 2025 | 5.5 |
Early Dallas (2018-2020): 2.5 sacks across 3 seasons. Breakout era (2021-): 35.0 sacks across 5 seasons.
SplitEra split — pre-breakout vs breakout
| Era | Seasons | Sacks | Sacks/yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| Early DAL (2018-2020) | 3 | 2.5 | 0.8 |
| Breakout (2021-2025) | 5 | 35.0 | 7.0 |
Armstrong was averaging less than 1 sack/season for his first three years, then jumped to a 7.0 sack/yr rate for the five seasons since. That's roughly a 9x improvement in per-season production — one of the most pronounced career trajectories at his position.
The 8.5 sack ceiling in three different seasons (2022, 2024) is a soft cap; he's never broken double digits, but he's also never dropped below 5.5 since the breakout began.
2024 with Washington was the most complete season of his career: 8.5 sacks, 18 QB hits, 10 TFL.
MilestoneArmstrong signed a 3-year, $39M contract with the Commanders in 2024, and the first year of that deal produced career highs in QB hits (18) and TFL (10) alongside a tied-career-high 8.5 sacks.
He's been a key piece of the Dan Quinn Washington defensive rebuild — Quinn was Armstrong's DC in Dallas (2021-2023), so the schemes the breakout happened in followed him to DC. 57 defensive plays appeared with WAS in 2024 vs 25 so far in 2025, on pace for a similar baseline year-two.
6 forced fumbles since 2022 — including 3 in 2024 alone.
AnomalyCareer FF by year
| Year | FF |
|---|---|
| 2018 | 0 |
| 2019 | 1 |
| 2020 | 1 |
| 2021 | 0 |
| 2022 | 1 |
| 2023 | 0 |
| 2024 | 3 |
| 2025 | 0 |
Armstrong's 3 forced fumbles in 2024 more than doubled the rest of his career FF total to that point. He's a strip-sack specialist — the first season in Washington produced an unusually clustered run of takeaway plays alongside his career-best QB hit total.
His career FF total of 6 is high relative to his sack count — a sign of finishing technique on rushes that get there rather than disruption-only pressures.
From 4th-round flier in 2018 to a $39M starter in 2024 — the Cowboys-to-Commanders pipeline came through.
ComparisonArmstrong career resume
| Stat | Career |
|---|---|
| Sacks | 37.5 |
| QB Hits | 76 |
| TFL | 40 |
| Solo Tackles | 131 |
| Asst Tackles | 103 |
| Forced Fumbles | 6 |
| Fumble Recoveries | 5 |
| Pass Defenses | 6 |
The cumulative resume — 37.5 sacks, 76 QB hits, 40 TFL — is comparable to first-round picks of the same era, but Armstrong was a 4th-round pick (135th overall, 2018). His value-per-draft-slot is among the better picks of the Cowboys' 2018 class.
The Quinn-system reunion in Washington has been the catalyst: the 8.5 / 7.5 / 8.5 sack run from 2022-2024 demonstrates a player who finally clicked when given consistent defensive coaching and a rotation that fit.
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