Advertisement

Texans' J.J. Watt, reaching 70-mark, on insane sack pace at age 26

It sounds crazy to ask, but are you fully appreciating what J.J. Watt is doing right now?

Yes, the Houston Texans defensive end is everywhere — on the field and off — but people might not be completely aware of the kind of sack pace he's on. Following the Texans' 24-6 dismantling of the New Orleans Saints, Watt (with two more sacks on Sunday) now has 70.5 sacks in 75 career games.

Only Reggie White (57 games) reached the 70-sack plateau faster in NFL history. Watt, 26, now ranks 79th in NFL history in sacks, which became an NFL statistic in 1982, after 75 career games. That's ahead of such active sack luminaries as Justin Tuck and Cameron Wake. Mind you: Watt is in his fifth NFL season and still going strong.

It's his fifth multi-sack game of the season, and he has 8.5 in the past five games. That means Watt is almost on pace for 20 sacks (currently at 19.6) for a third time in four seasons. There have been only 11 seasons with 20 or more sacks in NFL history, and Watt is the only one with more than one. He could have three the way he's going this season.

Watt is dominating, and so is the Texans' defense, which has allowed only 35 points in their past four games since being embarrassed by the Miami Dolphins in Week 7.

Could Watt be the best defensive player ever when he's finished? We're miles away from that, but it at least could be a discussion one day.

- - - - - - -

Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!