Pro Football Hall of Famer Michael Strahan officially broke the NFL’s single-season sack record back in 2001, recording 22.5 sacks for the New York Giants. The mark has stood for over 23 years, with only T.J. Watt matching it during his own 22.5-sack season in 2021 with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Records, of course, are made to be broken. Myles Garrett and the Cleveland Browns are planning to celebrate NFL history one of these next two weeks, in front of the home fans at Huntington Bank Field.
Garrett enters Sunday’s home game against the Buffalo Bills needing just one sack to match the current record held by both Strahan and Watt, and 1.5 sacks to break it. He figures to have opportunities coming up, too, as both Josh Allen and Aaron Rodgers (the Browns host Rodgers and the Steelers in Week 17) rank among the NFL’s top-20 in sacks taken this season; Allen’s 33 sacks are tied for the sixth-most in football entering Week 16.
Really, Garrett’s looming feat is already being celebrated weekly as opposing coaches do all they can to limit his impact, and he only continues to dominate. Only 34 players in NFL history have at least one season with 17.5 total sacks, per Pro Football Reference; Garrett has recorded 17.5 sacks in Cleveland’s last eight games alone.
What we’re witnessing is an all-time feat from a future Hall of Fame player. So it was a bit surprising to hear Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley predict a new sack king in 2026.
Myles Garrett’s historic sack chase could fuel Micah Parsons’ comeback
Injuries are an unfortunate part of the game, and the NFL lost a pair of giants last week in Patrick Mahomes and Micah Parsons.
Parsons' ACL injury was especially brutal for the Packers, who are currently battling for their playoff lives; at 9-4-1, they enter Week 16 one game back in the win column from Chicago in the NFC North, and currently hold the conference’s final wild-card spot.
Green Bay officially placed Parsons on season-ending injured reserve this week, and Hafley delivered a quote to local reporters that should resonate with fans back in Cleveland.
“I just have so much respect for the guy, and I’m sad for the guy,” Hafley said of Parsons, “but at the same time, just knowing who he is — just wait until you guys see how hard he works to come back, how fast he probably comes back. And probably, if I were a betting man, I would bet that he comes back even better — and probably breaks the sack record next year. … That’s the confidence that I have in him.”
In a long answer about Micah Parsons, Jeff Hafley predicts Parsons will break the NFL sack record next season. pic.twitter.com/HstZjzJ69h
— Matt Schneidman (@mattschneidman) December 17, 2025
Hafley obviously wasn’t talking about Garrett directly, but it’s hard not to connect the dots here. Garrett’s the only reason the sack record is in the news right now — the No. 2 sack getter behind Garrett is New York Giants edge Brian Burns, with 13 — and everyone knows it's not a matter of if, but when, Garrett gets there this year. His stated goal is to reach 25 sacks, and with three games remaining, that number's well within reach.
Parsons is definitely the NFL’s pressure king, as per Pro Football Focus, he topped 100 pressures in 2023 with the Dallas Cowboys, and had an outside shot at getting there this year with the Packers prior to his knee injury in Week 15.
No one would compare Parsons to Garrett in terms of finishing at the quarterback, though. He’s yet to eclipse 14 sacks in a single season; Garrett has 14-plus sacks in five years running.
Hafley was more talking up his guy, than trying to belittle the upcoming accomplishment of the best singular defensive player in the game. Still, these 20-sack seasons don’t come around too often (there’s only been 14 of them, officially, since 1982, per PFR), so you’d expect to see a coach with a defensive background show the GOAT a little more respect.