In discussing and comparing pass rushers, a lot of discussion seems to focus on the rusher feasting on weak competition vs. being able to perform against any blocker they face. There are a lot of excuses as to why a pass rusher had a good game, from facing a rookie OT to playing against a bad team that had given up near the end of the season.
I wanted to look into this a little more, so I decided to look at the percentage of games (including playoffs) where a pass rusher got to the QB at least once. A high percentage should indicate that the rusher is capable of succeeding against more varied competition.
I compared the current batch of pass rushers in the NFL (Aldon, Allen, Mathis, Quinn, etc) as well as the big names from the past (White, Greene, LT, etc). I only looked at 1982 to present, because sacks were not kept track of before then.
There have been 3 players since 1982 that have recorded sacks in more than 60% of the games they've played:
-Von Miller 65.1%
-Mark Gastineau 61.1%
-DeMarcus Ware 60.7%
Some other notable names:
Reggie White 56.4%
Jared Allen 55.6%
Aldon Smith 54.9%
Bruce Smith 53.8%
Derrick Thomas 49.7%
Michael Strahan 48.7%
Elvis Dumervil 48.6%
Justin Houston 36.4%
I wanted to look into this a little more, so I decided to look at the percentage of games (including playoffs) where a pass rusher got to the QB at least once. A high percentage should indicate that the rusher is capable of succeeding against more varied competition.
I compared the current batch of pass rushers in the NFL (Aldon, Allen, Mathis, Quinn, etc) as well as the big names from the past (White, Greene, LT, etc). I only looked at 1982 to present, because sacks were not kept track of before then.
There have been 3 players since 1982 that have recorded sacks in more than 60% of the games they've played:
-Von Miller 65.1%
-Mark Gastineau 61.1%
-DeMarcus Ware 60.7%
Some other notable names:
Reggie White 56.4%
Jared Allen 55.6%
Aldon Smith 54.9%
Bruce Smith 53.8%
Derrick Thomas 49.7%
Michael Strahan 48.7%
Elvis Dumervil 48.6%
Justin Houston 36.4%

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