Bruce Smith shocking statistic...he never led the NFL in sacks in any year he played

[Big Turk]

I had to double check this but it is true...totally crazy!  

 

In Smith's best year when he had 19 sacks in 1990, Derrick Thomas of the Chiefs had 20. His second highest total was 15 in 1986 when Lawrence Taylor had 20.5 and Smith was actually 5th after Taylor, Dexter Manley with 18.5, Reggie White with 18, and Sean Jones with 15.5. He had 14 3 times and 13 twice as well. 

 

In all, Smith had 13 seasons where he had double digit sacks.  12 were with the Bills, the other was his second season in Washington at age 37.  

 

He did lead the NFL twice in forced fumbles with 5 in 1994 and 1996, and is 8th in career forced fumbles with 43. Robert Mathis is all time leader in forced fumbles with 54. Julius Peppers 2nd at 52. Active leaders are Chandler Jones and Robert Quinn tied with 27.

Edited November 12, 2020 by matter2003

[scuba guy]

Also ny Jets

Mark gastineu

 

[BillsFan619]

8 minutes ago, matter2003 said:

I had to double check this but it is true...totally crazy!  

 

In Smith's best year when he had 19 sacks in 1990, Derrick Thomas of the Chiefs had 20. His second highest total was 15 in 1986 when Lawrence Taylor had 20.5 and Smith was actually 5th after Taylor, Dexter Manley with 18.5, Reggie White with 18, and Sean Jones with 15.5. He had 14 3 times and 13 twice as well. 

 

In all, Smith had 13 seasons where he had double digit sacks.  12 were with the Bills, the other was his second season in Washington at age 37.  

 

He did lead the NFL twice in forced fumbles with 5 in 1994 and 1996, and is 8th in career forced fumbles with 43. Robert Mathis is all time leader in forced fumbles with 54. Julius Peppers 2nd at 52. Active leaders are Chandler Jones and Robert Quinn tied with 27.

I guess the tortoise wins the race (not saying Bruce was slow)? That’s completely shocking especially with him being the best at his position.

Edited November 12, 2020 by BillsFan619

[Royale with Cheese]

A Bills WR has never led the NFL in either yards, receptions or touchdowns.  

[Big Turk]

7 minutes ago, scuba guy said:

Also ny Jets

Mark gastineu

 

 

Gastineau led the NFL twice in back to back years with 19 and 22 sacks in 1983 and 1984. He also unofficially had 20 sacks in 1982, the year before the NFL started keeping track of them and his teammate Joe Klecko had 20.5 that year as part of the "New York Sack Exchange" line that unofficially recorded 66 between the 4 linemen.

 

He only had one other year in double digits with 13.5 before really fading badly over the next 3 years...

 

I was always a little amazed at how he faded so quickly...was there an injury that caused his rapid decline? Something else?

Edited November 12, 2020 by matter2003

[H2o]

1 minute ago, matter2003 said:

 

Gastineau led the NFL twice in back to back years with 19 and 22 sacks in 1983 and 1984. He also unofficially had 20 sacks in 1982, the year before the NFL started keeping track of them and his teammate Joe Klecko had 20.5 that year as part of the "New York Sack Exchange" line that unofficially recorded 66 between the 4 linemen.

 

He only had one other year in double digits with 13.5 before really fading badly over the next 3 years...

 

I was always a little amazed at how he faded so quickly...was there an injury that caused his rapid decline? Something else?

Steroids cause your body to break down eventually. 

Edited November 12, 2020 by H2o

[Fr. Jerk]

[Big Turk]

2 minutes ago, H2o said:

Steroids cause your body to break down eventually. 

 

Gotcha...that would explain it...he wasn't even a full time starter the last 4 seasons it appears, even in the season he had 13.5 sacks, he only started 12 games but played in all 16.

[Mikie2times]

Great article to sprinkle in with the topic. 

 

https://www.espn.com/espn/page2/story?page=weinreb/081006

[Kwai San]

Baaaad Things Man!  Baaaaaaad Things!

Edited November 12, 2020 by Kwai San

[Jay_Fixit]

15 minutes ago, Royale with Cheese said:

A Bills WR has never led the NFL in either yards, receptions or touchdowns.  

Cool. 
 

Toe stepper.

 

 

[Nextmanup]

I'll give you another shocking statistic!  He wasn't even the best defensive end in the game while playing.

 

That was Reggie White.

 

Bruce Smith is still one of the all-time best Buffalo Bills, up there with OJ and only a few others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Buffalo Junction]

9 minutes ago, matter2003 said:

I had to double check this but it is true...totally crazy!  

 

In Smith's best year when he had 19 sacks in 1990, Derrick Thomas of the Chiefs had 20. His second highest total was 15 in 1986 when Lawrence Taylor had 20.5 and Smith was actually 5th after Taylor, Dexter Manley with 18.5, Reggie White with 18, and Sean Jones with 15.5. He had 14 3 times and 13 twice as well. 

 

In all, Smith had 13 seasons where he had double digit sacks.  12 were with the Bills, the other was his second season in Washington at age 37.  

 

He did lead the NFL twice in forced fumbles with 5 in 1994 and 1996, and is 8th in career forced fumbles with 43. Robert Mathis is all time leader in forced fumbles with 54. Julius Peppers 2nd at 52. Active leaders are Chandler Jones and Robert Quinn tied with 27.

Not too surprising when you consider the sheer number of hall of fame pass rushers that played at the same time. Then there were the not quite as good pass rushers like Clyde Simmons and Neil Smith who played opposite Reggie White and Derrick Thomas (respectively) and made it impossible to focus on just one rusher. 
 

Mid 80’s through mid 90’s was such an awesome time for defensive football. IMO a pinnacle before the league toned down hitting and slanted the rules towards offense. Plus, they really didn’t do the best job keeping track of PEDs either so there were a fair amount of guys with just a couple high end seasons. 

[Mr. WEO]

bum

[Royale with Cheese]

5 minutes ago, Jay_Fixit said:

Cool. 
 

Toe stepper.

 

 

 

Want to hear something amazing?  I was out the other day and I saw this guy wearing sandals with his jeans and a hoodie....I thought it looked ridiculous.  I'm going to stop doing that.

[Buffalo Junction]

7 minutes ago, Nextmanup said:

I'll give you another shocking statistic!  He wasn't even the best defensive end in the game while playing.

 

That was Reggie White.

 

Bruce Smith is still one of the all-time best Buffalo Bills, up there with OJ and only a few others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s a difficult debate due to the defenses they played in 46 & 43 vs 34. That said, either could play in the others scheme. They were just too talented. Of course it’s not fair to add in Whites USFL sacks (23?) either, or the fact that he played a USFL season and NFL season in the same year and still posted 13 sacks in 13 games. 

[Protocal69]

13 minutes ago, Nextmanup said:

I'll give you another shocking statistic!  He wasn't even the best defensive end in the game while playing.

 

That was Reggie White.

 

Bruce Smith is still one of the all-time best Buffalo Bills, up there with OJ and only a few others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That isn’t true. To play a 3-4 defensive end and to be top 5 in sacks every year is crazy. Reggie White is all time great but Reggie White had more help on the Defensive line as a 4-3 defensive end.

[djp14150]

48 minutes ago, matter2003 said:

I had to double check this but it is true...totally crazy!  

 

In Smith's best year when he had 19 sacks in 1990, Derrick Thomas of the Chiefs had 20. His second highest total was 15 in 1986 when Lawrence Taylor had 20.5 and Smith was actually 5th after Taylor, Dexter Manley with 18.5, Reggie White with 18, and Sean Jones with 15.5. He had 14 3 times and 13 twice as well. 

 

In all, Smith had 13 seasons where he had double digit sacks.  12 were with the Bills, the other was his second season in Washington at age 37.  

 

He did lead the NFL twice in forced fumbles with 5 in 1994 and 1996, and is 8th in career forced fumbles with 43. Robert Mathis is all time leader in forced fumbles with 54. Julius Peppers 2nd at 52. Active leaders are Chandler Jones and Robert Quinn tied with 27.

Reggie white career was over the same time.

 

from year in and out you had different people have high sack years.  

 

[Big Turk]

33 minutes ago, Nextmanup said:

I'll give you another shocking statistic!  He wasn't even the best defensive end in the game while playing.

 

That was Reggie White.

 

Bruce Smith is still one of the all-time best Buffalo Bills, up there with OJ and only a few others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I might have to agree with that actually...White finished his career with only 2 fewer sacks than Smith but played in 47 fewer games(279 for Smith to 232 for White). White's first year in the NFL was at age 24 versus age 22 for Smith, so they weren't old washed up years he missed either. Pretty apparent if White played in the equivalent of almost 3 more seasons worth of games he would have far outpaced Smith's record and would have had somewhere around 238 sacks if he kept up his .85 sacks/game average over his career.

 

Actually Pro Football Reference agrees as well, putting White #1 all time at DE with a career AV of 156, with Smith #2 at 147. 

Their Hall of Fame Monitor also ranks White #1 at 237.75 points with Smith again #2 at 211.35.  

 

No shame at this, White was an absolute monster as well...crazy how what might be the 2 best DE's in NFL history(Deacon Jones might want to chime in) both were contemporaries to each other

17 minutes ago, Protocal69 said:

That isn’t true. To play a 3-4 defensive end and to be top 5 in sacks every year is crazy. Reggie White is all time great but Reggie White had more help on the Defensive line as a 4-3 defensive end.

 

That is also true...the edge rushers in a 3-4 scheme are typically the 2 OLB's whereas the DE's are usually bigger and more stout to defend the run. I wonder what Smith would have done in a 4-3 scheme. So how many sacks did Smith miss out on from a scheme standpoint that he would have gotten in a 4-3??

Edited November 12, 2020 by matter2003

[Jay_Fixit]

33 minutes ago, Royale with Cheese said:

 

Want to hear something amazing?  I was out the other day and I saw this guy wearing sandals with his jeans and a hoodie....I thought it looked ridiculous.  I'm going to stop doing that.

It’s only taken what, 13 years?