NFL career sack leaders: Where Micah Parsons, T.J. Watt rank among active players on all-time list
The NFL has seen some legends grace the league over the years. While many of the all-time greats are lauded for their impact on the offensive side of the ball, the defensive players are also overlooked, even though they’ve had just as big an impact as their offensive counterparts.
Fans watching their teams on defense love seeing the opposing quarterback get hit with a bone-crunching sack. Some pass-rushers have developed techniques that make them more adept at either bull-rushing offensive linemen or getting around them to the quarterback. While we haven’t seen any active players look like they have a chance of touching the career sack leaders, they are still making names for themselves in the game of football.
Here is more on the active players on the NFL’s career sack leaders list.
MORE: Who are the NFL’s leaders in career passing yards?
NFL career sack leaders
Sacks became an official NFL statistic in 1982. Football historians have gone back and tallied sacks in the history of football, but numbers are only considered official since 1982. Even in the 40+ years that sacks have been a stat, there have been some absolutely absurd careers. Bruce Smith leads the way with 200 sacks, which is 66.5 sacks more than the current active sack leader at the start of the 2025 season.
Reggie White, a.k.a. The Minister of Defense, narrowly finished right behind Smith with 198 sacks in his illustrious career. To show how much each of them terrorized offensive lines and quarterbacks, the all-time third-place leader in sacks is 38 sacks behind them. That is a dominant season-and-a-half’s worth of sacks, but likely at least two more seasons to accumulate them to make up the difference.
Kevin Greene and Julius Peppers both have ties to the Carolina Panthers. Greene is known for his time with the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1993-1995, but won his lone Defensive Player of the Year Award with Carolina in 1996. Peppers started his career with the Panthers before stints with the Green Bay Packers and Las Vegas Raiders, before returning home to Carolina for the final two seasons of his career.
Here are the NFL career sack leaders from when it became an official stat in 1982.
RankPlayerSacks1Bruce Smith200.02Reggie White198.03Kevin Greene160.04Julius Peppers159.55Chris Doleman150.56Michael Strahan141.57Jason Taylor139.58Terrell Suggs139.09DeMarcus Ware138.510Richard Dent137.5 John Randle137.512Jared Allen136.013John Abraham133.5 Von Miller133.515Leslie O’Neal132.5 Lawrence Taylor132.517Rickey Jackson128.018Derrick Thomas126.519Dwight Freeney125.520Cameron Jordan124.021Robert Mathis123.022Simeon Rice122.023Clyde Simmons121.524J.J. Watt114.525Calais Campbell113.526Sean Jones113.027Justin Houston112.0 Chandler Jones112.0 T.J. Watt112.030Aaron Donald111.0
NFL career sack leaders among active players
Here are the active sack leaders in the NFL and where they rank all-time.
Active RankPlayer NameCareer SacksAll-Time Rank1Von Miller133.5T-13th2Cameron Jordan124.020th3Calais Campbell113.525th4T.J. Watt112.0T-27th5Khalil Mack110.531st6Myles Garrett107.5T-33rd7Danielle Hunter103.539th8Cameron Heyward90.061st9Chris Jones82.5T-76th10Trey Hendrickson81.0T-81st11Joey Bosa74.0T-94th12Matt Judon72.0T-101st13DeForest Buckner70.5T-106th Preston Smith70.5T-106th Za’Darius Smith70.5T-106th16Leonard Floyd68.0T-117th17Nick Bosa64.5T-129th DeMarcus Lawrence64.5T-129th19Brian Burns63.5T-133rd Maxx Crosby63.5T-133rd21Denico Autry63.0T-136th22Haason Reddick60.5T-147th23Jadeveon Clowney59.0T-154th Bud Dupree59.0T-154th25Micah Parsons58.0T-163rd26Leonard Williams57.5T-171st27Dante Fowler56.5T-177th28Harold Landry56.0T-182nd Kyle Van Noy 56.0T-182nd30Josh Hines-Allen53.5T-191st
Von Miller
Von Miller went to Texas A&M and was drafted with the second overall pick in the 2011 NFL Draft by the Denver Broncos. He spent 10.5 seasons with the franchise before he was traded at the trade deadline to the Los Angeles Rams. It proved a good move for L.A. who used Miller’s influx to win that season’s Super Bowl. He then spent three seasons with the Buffalo Bills before signing with the Washington Commanders for the 2025 season.
Miller’s career-high sack total is 18.5, which he had for Denver in just his second season in the league. He had 11.5 as a rookie in 2011, which won him the Defensive Rookie of the Year Award that season.
MORE: Ranking the greatest Commanders players of all time
Cameron Jordan
It is rare in the NFL for players to stick with one franchise. Usually, at some point in a player’s career, another organization will either offer you more money or enough of a trade package that your current team has to make a business decision and move you. As of the start of the 2025 season, Cameron Jordan has spent his entire 15-year career with the New Orleans Saints.
He played his college ball at California and was drafted with the 24th overall pick in 2011. He has had double-digit sacks six times in his career heading into 2025. Jordan’s current career-high is 15.5 sacks in 2019.
Calais Campbell
Calais Campbell is one of the older players in the NFL for the 2025 season. After playing his college ball at Miami from 2004 to 2007, he was drafted by the Arizona Cardinals with the 50th overall pick in the 2008 NFL Draft. Campbell developed into one of the more gifted pass rushers in the league, making use of his 6-8 frame. He bounced around the league with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Baltimore Ravens, Atlanta Falcons and Miami Dolphins before returning home to Arizona for the 2025 season.
Campbell has been a solid performer throughout his career. His current career-high in sacks is 14.5, which he had in his first season in Jacksonville in 2017.
MORE: Ranking the greatest Ravens of all time
T.J. Watt
T.J. Watt had to worry about playing in his brother J.J.’s shadow, but he used it as motivation to prove that he is just as good, if not better than, his older brother. After a four-year career at Wisconsin, Watt was drafted with the 30th pick in the 2017 NFL Draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers.
His continued dominance in the NFL earned him a massive contract with the Steelers, a deal that ranked second among defenders in the league for annual value.
Watt is a perennial Defensive Player of the Year candidate. He tied Michael Strahan’s single-season sack record with 22.5 in 2021. Watt added 19.0 sacks in 2023 and 15.0 sacks in 2020 for the best years of his career so far.
MORE: Ranking the greatest Steelers of all time
Khalil Mack
Khalil Mack didn’t go to as big of a school as his counterparts in the top-five, as he went to the University of Buffalo from 2009 to 2013. The smaller school didn’t do much to hurt his draft stock as he was selected fifth overall in the 2014 NFL Draft by the then-Oakland Raiders. He was with the organization until he was traded to the Chicago Bears at the start of the 2018 season. Mack was traded again in 2022, but this time to the Los Angeles Chargers.
Mack was named the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2011, but his 11 sacks that season weren’t his career-best. That belongs to his 2023 campaign when he finished with 17 sacks for the Chargers.
MORE: Ranking the greatest Bears of all time
