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.
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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.
| Rank | Player | Sacks |
| 1 | Bruce Smith | 200.0 |
| 2 | Reggie White | 198.0 |
| 3 | Kevin Greene | 160.0 |
| 4 | Julius Peppers | 159.5 |
| 5 | Chris Doleman | 150.5 |
| 6 | Michael Strahan | 141.5 |
| 7 | Jason Taylor | 139.5 |
| 8 | Terrell Suggs | 139.0 |
| 9 | DeMarcus Ware | 138.5 |
| 10 | Richard Dent | 137.5 |
| John Randle | 137.5 | |
| 12 | Jared Allen | 136.0 |
| 13 | John Abraham | 133.5 |
| Von Miller | 133.5 | |
| 15 | Leslie O'Neal | 132.5 |
| Lawrence Taylor | 132.5 | |
| 17 | Rickey Jackson | 128.0 |
| 18 | Derrick Thomas | 126.5 |
| 19 | Dwight Freeney | 125.5 |
| 20 | Cameron Jordan | 124.0 |
| 21 | Robert Mathis | 123.0 |
| 22 | Simeon Rice | 122.0 |
| 23 | Clyde Simmons | 121.5 |
| 24 | J.J. Watt | 114.5 |
| 25 | Calais Campbell | 113.5 |
| 26 | Sean Jones | 113.0 |
| 27 | Justin Houston | 112.0 |
| Chandler Jones | 112.0 | |
| T.J. Watt | 112.0 | |
| 30 | Aaron Donald | 111.0 |
NFL career sack leaders among active players
Here are the active sack leaders in the NFL and where they rank all-time.
| Active Rank | Player Name | Career Sacks | All-Time Rank |
| 1 | Von Miller | 133.5 | T-13th |
| 2 | Cameron Jordan | 124.0 | 20th |
| 3 | Calais Campbell | 113.5 | 25th |
| 4 | T.J. Watt | 112.0 | T-27th |
| 5 | Khalil Mack | 110.5 | 31st |
| 6 | Myles Garrett | 107.5 | T-33rd |
| 7 | Danielle Hunter | 103.5 | 39th |
| 8 | Cameron Heyward | 90.0 | 61st |
| 9 | Chris Jones | 82.5 | T-76th |
| 10 | Trey Hendrickson | 81.0 | T-81st |
| 11 | Joey Bosa | 74.0 | T-94th |
| 12 | Matt Judon | 72.0 | T-101st |
| 13 | DeForest Buckner | 70.5 | T-106th |
| Preston Smith | 70.5 | T-106th | |
| Za'Darius Smith | 70.5 | T-106th | |
| 16 | Leonard Floyd | 68.0 | T-117th |
| 17 | Nick Bosa | 64.5 | T-129th |
| DeMarcus Lawrence | 64.5 | T-129th | |
| 19 | Brian Burns | 63.5 | T-133rd |
| Maxx Crosby | 63.5 | T-133rd | |
| 21 | Denico Autry | 63.0 | T-136th |
| 22 | Haason Reddick | 60.5 | T-147th |
| 23 | Jadeveon Clowney | 59.0 | T-154th |
| Bud Dupree | 59.0 | T-154th | |
| 25 | Micah Parsons | 58.0 | T-163rd |
| 26 | Leonard Williams | 57.5 | T-171st |
| 27 | Dante Fowler | 56.5 | T-177th |
| 28 | Harold Landry | 56.0 | T-182nd |
| Kyle Van Noy | 56.0 | T-182nd | |
| 30 | Josh Hines-Allen | 53.5 | T-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.
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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.
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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.
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