Ranked: The most productive pass rushers in NFL history

There might not be a more invigorating play for a defense than bringing the quarterback down for a huge loss of yards. Certain players throughout NFL history have excelled in the art of the sack by finding ways to get through the offensive line to crush quarterbacks. We’ll look back at the players with the most sacks in league history. All statistics are sourced from Football Reference.

It’s hard to believe that Richard Dent and John Randle finished their impressive careers with the exact same amount of sacks. Dent was one of the leaders of the Monsters of the Midway defense in 1985 for the Chicago Bears. Randle did most of his damage in the 1990’s for the Minnesota Vikings.

Dent’s former teammate Tom Thayer told the NFL’s website that “He could stand up and cover off the line of scrimmage, but he could also dominate tight ends, tackles and double-teams. To me, that’s the definition of dominating.” Former Randle position coach John Teerlinck told Fox News about the former Viking “One year he took the cushions from an old couch and duct-taped them to the trees outside his home in Texas. He made a gauntlet he’d go running through in the forest.”

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Ware got his elusive Super Bowl ring at the end of his career with the Denver Broncos, but he accumulated most of his sacks during his nine seasons with the Dallas Cowboys. All-Pro offensive lineman Joe Staley told GiveMeSport “He was just so good at a variety of different moves and abilities and I played against him four or five times.” Staley believes Ware is the best player he ever played against.

Ware was named to the NFL’s All-Pro team four times during his career. Mike Piellucci from D Magazine wrote “The perfect player—the perfect fit—cannot be designed or conjured up on a whim after all. DeMarcus Ware just made it look that way.”

The Baltimore Ravens were set at linebacker thanks to the marvelous play of Ray Lewis. They likely thought that the addition of Terrell Suggs would be complementary to Lewis’ transcendent abilities. It turned out that Suggs would become one of the best pass rushers in NFL history, forming a fearsome tandem with Lewis for many years.

Suggs once told ESPN that he didn’t want to just be known as a pass rusher, and most of the NFL world would not think twice about questioning him. “I want to be known as a defender that can do more than just one thing. I definitely take pride in that. I don’t want to just have a lot of sacks. I like to fill up the stat sheet.”

Things didn’t exactly get off to a strong start in the pass rushing department for Taylor. It wasn’t until his fourth season in the NFL that he notched a campaign with over 10 sacks, but once he established himself, he was a force to be reckoned with. Taylor told the Daily Commercial that he wasn’t sure he would amount to much in NFL.

Taylor credits former Miami Dolphins coach Jimmy Johnson for giving him a chance to excel. He told the Daily Commercial “Jimmy’s the guy who gave me a chance to play defensive end in the NFL at 240 pounds. People were saying ‘he’s not big enough, he’s not strong enough.’ Jimmy believed in me from day one, and showed me what it took to be successful in this league.”

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Many NFL fans and people below a certain age might recognize Strahan as a television personality, but he is one of the most feared defensive players in NFL history. He found the right path after a few years in the NFL, but it was his shift to left defensive end that really unlocked his potential, as Newsday has wrote about.

It’s hard to come up with a better ending for a career than Strahan’s. He was part of the Giants defensive line that ravaged Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl, denying them of a perfect season in 2007. Strahan recorded a sack in the big game, which helped him earn a ring in his final game.

Doleman is arguably the most unheralded player on this list, but he had a phenomenal career. His former teammate Greg Coleman told the Minnesota Vikings team site “I just talked with Lawrence Taylor, and Doleman reminded me of him. You had to know where LT was at all times, and you had to worry about where Chris Doleman was, too.”

Doleman spent 10 of his 15 year NFL career with the Minnesota Vikings, but also spent time with the San Francisco 49ers and Atlanta Falcons. Terrell Suggs actually drew inspiration and motivation from Doleman’s tremendous NFL career. He told the St. Augustine Record “He was one of the main reasons I played defensive end.”

Perhaps Sports Illustrated’s Schuyler Callihan put it best when describing the physical gifts Peppers had. “Very few players his size(6’7” 295 lbs) have the ability to move like he could. The insane combination of strength and speed that he possessed made it feel like he was built in a lab. He did things guys of his stature shouldn’t be able to do.”

Peppers also played basketball for the University of North Carolina during his college days, which shows just how special of an athlete he was. He was known for letting his play do the talking. Former Carolina Panthers teammate DeShaun Foster told The New York Times that Peppers was “not gonna say much, but his presence is known. Just a quiet assassin.”

Greene retired from the NFL in 1999 at the age of 37. However, he didn’t really show many signs of slowing down. In his final four years in the NFL, he posted 14.5, 10.5, 15 and 12 sacks respectively. It’s fun to wonder whether Greene could have ascended higher on this list had he extended his career well into his late thirties.

As Fox 4 Kansas City’s website captured, Greene once admitted “I wasn’t the biggest and I wasn’t the fastest. But as long as you have a motor, you have heart…that will overcome any physical limitations.” He also said “I figured out how to pass rush. I figured out how to put a guy, an offensive tackle three to four inches taller, 80 pounds heavier, put him in a position of failure.”

According to Pro Football Reference’s rankings, White is the most valuable defensive player in NFL history. Jason Whitlock once wrote for ESPN “Reggie couldn’t be blocked. You could get in his way. You could cut his legs out from underneath him. As a backside tackle, you could jump at his legs. You could pray. But blocking Reggie White was a near impossibility.”

White also has one of the best nicknames in NFL history, which ties into his personal life. As the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s website notes, he became an ordained minister at age 17. His religious philosophy on the field included crunching hits of opposing quarterbacks, and he came within a whisker of being the league’s all-time leading sacker.

Smith made his mark during 15 seasons with the Buffalo Bills and four seasons with the Washington Commanders. His former teammate Jim Kelly once told The State Journal-Register that he would always tell legendary defender Deacon Jones that he would slide over to second best once Smith was elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

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It’s been brought up that Smith hung around the NFL with the sole purpose of eclipsing White’s sack record, but it shouldn’t make his achievement any less superb. SB Nation noted Smith’s technique as a pass rusher. “As he shot off the ball like a rocket, Smith would also turn his hips toward the quarterback.”