Player
Tuli Tuipulotu
EDGE · Chargers
A player who adds roughly 50-60% more sacks every single year is on a trajectory almost no pass rusher achieves. The consistent scaling across QB hits and TFLs rules out luck.
Doubled his sacks every year — 4 → 7 → 13 — and 2025 finally broke through.
TrendTuipulotu career production by year
| Year | Sacks | QB Hits | TFL | Tackles | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 4 | 12 | 8 | 28 | 2 |
| 2024 | 8.5 | 16 | 11 | 25 | 1 |
| 2025 | 13 | 23 | 20 | 32 | 2 |
Sacks per season
| Season | Sacks |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 4 |
| 2024 | 8.5 |
| 2025 | 13 |
The progression is almost impossibly clean: 4 → 8.5 → 13 sacks, with QB hits and TFLs scaling at the same rate. The 2025 leap is the breakout — and notably, his TFL count (20) exceeded his sacks, meaning he's wrecking run plays and pass plays at the same rate.
For a 2nd-round pick out of USC, Year 3 was the make-or-break season. He passed.
Why it matters. A player who adds roughly 50-60% more sacks every single year is on a trajectory almost no pass rusher achieves. The consistent scaling across QB hits and TFLs rules out luck.
4 sacks in a single game vs the Giants — Week 4, 2025 — was nearly a third of his season in one afternoon.
MilestoneTuipulotu 2025 sacks by week
| Week | Sacks |
|---|---|
| 4 | 4 |
| 6 | 1 |
| 8 | 1 |
| 9 | 1 |
| 10 | 1 |
| 13 | 2 |
| 15 | 2 |
| 16 | 1 |
| Postseason W19 | 1 |
4 sacks vs the Giants in Week 4 — hitting both Russell Wilson and Jaxson Dart, including a forced fumble. That single game accounted for roughly 31% of his entire 2025 sack total.
The rest of the year was a steady drip: at least one sack in 8 different weeks, never another multi-sack outing of more than 2. The giant-killer game inflated the headline number, but the underlying weekly consistency is the more impressive story.
Why it matters. A 4-sack game is among the rarest individual defensive performances in the NFL — most pass rushers never have one in their entire career. It also reveals that Tuipulotu can take over games, not just accumulate.
6th in NFL sacks in 2025 — and 9th in the entire league over the last two seasons combined.
RareNFL sack leaders, 2025 regular season
| Player | Pos | Sacks |
|---|---|---|
| Myles Garrett | DL | 23 |
| Brian Burns | LB | 16.5 |
| Danielle Hunter | DL | 15 |
| Aidan Hutchinson | DL | 14.5 |
| Nik Bonitto | LB | 14 |
| Tuli Tuipulotu | LB | 13 |
| Micah Parsons | LB | 12.5 |
| Josh Sweat | LB | 12 |
2024-25 combined sack leaders (≥20 sacks)
| Player | Pos | 2024-25 Sacks |
|---|---|---|
| Myles Garrett | DL | 37 |
| Nik Bonitto | LB | 27.5 |
| Danielle Hunter | DL | 27 |
| Brian Burns | LB | 25 |
| Micah Parsons | LB | 24.5 |
| Will Anderson Jr. | DL | 23 |
| Aidan Hutchinson | DL | 22 |
| Trey Hendrickson | DL | 21.5 |
| Tuli Tuipulotu | LB | 21.5 |
13 sacks puts him 6th in the NFL in 2025, alongside established names like Parsons and Sweat. Across the 2024-25 combined leaderboard he sits 9th overall with 21.5 sacks.
He's still 23 years old. The modern pass-rusher market starts at "$50M/yr" — his next contract is going to be one of the biggest of the 2026 cycle.
Why it matters. Finishing top-6 in NFL sacks at 23 years old — ahead of veterans like Parsons — signals this isn't a fluke trajectory.
His TFLs (20) outpaced his sacks (13) in 2025 — a true two-way EDGE, not a pure pass rusher.
SplitSack vs TFL, 2025 EDGE leaders (10+ sacks)
| Player | Sacks | TFL | TFL-Sack gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Myles Garrett | 23 | 33 | +10 |
| Brian Burns | 16.5 | 22 | +5.5 |
| Danielle Hunter | 15 | 15 | 0 |
| Aidan Hutchinson | 14.5 | 14 | -0.5 |
| Nik Bonitto | 14 | 14 | 0 |
| Will Anderson Jr. | 12 | 20 | +8 |
| Tuli Tuipulotu | 13 | 20 | +7 |
| Micah Parsons | 12.5 | 12 | -0.5 |
| Josh Sweat | 12 | 13 | +1 |
Among pass rushers with 10+ sacks in 2025, TFL-over-sack gaps reveal who is also a run-stopper. Myles Garrett (+10) leads — but among the field, Tuipulotu's +7 gap and Will Anderson Jr.'s +8 gap stand out as the two most complete two-way EDGE players in that range.
Most pass-rush specialists hover near 0 or go negative (more sacks than TFLs). Tuipulotu is beating run blocks at a rate that puts him in elite EDGE company for his age.
Why it matters. TFLs require stopping ball-carriers before the line of scrimmage, not just rushing the passer. A high TFL-to-sack ratio means Tuipulotu is eating up run lanes — something pure pass-rush specialists can't do.
Same draft class as Will Anderson Jr. — picked 51 spots later, only 1.5 sacks behind him over the last two years.
Comparison2023 EDGE class, 2024-25 production
| Player | Pick | Team | 2024 Sacks | 2025 Sacks | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Will Anderson Jr. | #3 | HOU | 11 | 12 | 23 |
| Will McDonald IV | #15 | NYJ | 10.5 | 8 | 18.5 |
| Nolan Smith | #30 | PHI | 6.5 | 3 | 9.5 |
| Lukas Van Ness | #13 | GB | 3 | 1.5 | 4.5 |
| Tuli Tuipulotu | #54 | LAC | 8.5 | 13 | 21.5 |
Will Anderson Jr. went #3 overall in the 2023 draft. Tuipulotu went #54 — 51 picks later, a full draft round-and-a-half down. Over their first two full healthy seasons (2024 + 2025), Anderson has 23 sacks; Tuipulotu has 21.5.
The gap is just 1.5 sacks. Every other top-15 EDGE from this class (Wilson, McDonald, Carter, Van Ness) is far behind on a per-game basis. Tuipulotu is the best draft-value pass rusher of his class, and the Chargers got him on a Day 2 contract.
Why it matters. Draft capital is the NFL's most expensive currency. Closing a 51-pick gap to within 1.5 sacks in two seasons makes Tuipulotu one of the great value picks of the 2023 class.
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