NFL Thursday is back this week as we look at the all-time list for most times sacked, and no surprise, we see Aaron Rodgers atop the list by one over Hall of Fame quarterback Fran Tarkenton. We could not think of two QBs with different styles, really, as Rodgers has been known for taking a sack instead of throwing the ball away to lower his completion percentage, while Tarkenton was the ultimate scrambler in his time.

But what does this list really mean? Well, you play QB long enough, you’re going to get sacked a lot. It also has a lot to do with personal playing style (see above), quality of your offensive line, and pocket awareness, really, in terms of getting rid of the ball before you lose too many yards. Every quarterback has a different experience, so let’s look at the Top 10 on this list and analyze why the QBs took so many sacks in their time.

  1. Aaron Rodgers (571): Despite pinpoint accuracy, he always has taken a sack more instead of an incompletion. Perhaps this stems from confidence, too, that whatever yards he loses with a sack he can regain with a perfect throw on the next down. Interesting combination of selfishness and confidence.
  2. Fran Tarkenton (570): He played on some bad teams for the first 12 seasons of his career, finishing above .500 as a starter just twice in that stretch. His sack totals piled up there as he tried to make plays, and then the sacks disappeared in his final six seasons on much better teams (57-20-2). Circumstantial.
  3. Tom Brady (565): This is just about longevity, as he played in 23 different NFL seasons. He actually led the NFL in his final two seasons for lowest sack rate, showing how smart he was at avoiding both sacks and injuries after all his experience. Yes, he was the biggest cheater ever, but he still had real brains.
  4. Russell Wilson (560): With just 13 seasons under his belt, it’s likely Wilson will finish his 14th season, upcoming, as the all-time leader in sacks taken. This was the major criticism of his play in Seattle all those years, despite his MVP-caliber statistical output and carrying mediocre teams on his shoulders.
  5. Ben Roethlisberger (554): Playing for 18 seasons with minimal mobility and a slow delivery adds up to a lot of sacks, although we should note that in his penultimate year (2020), he topped the NFL in lowest sack rate. Still, Big Ben earned his name, going down quite a lot in the first half of his career.
  6. Brett Favre (525): He played for 20 seasons in the Tarkenton style, but he just happened to play for better teams, overall. He topped the NFL in lowest sack rate once, too (2004), although generally he was pretty consistent throughout his career in that category, from start (1992) to finish (2010).
  7. John Elway (516): Known for his arm strength, he also had an incredible ability to make amazing throws while on the run. Yes, he became a little more immobile as time went on, with his sack rate increasing a lot in his middle six seasons (1989-1994). But he matured and learned and improved.
  8. Matthew Stafford (502): He has a surprisingly middling sack rate despite being a statue in the backfield, but his powerful arm certainly has something to do with that. He may not push into the Top 5 here, depending on how long he continues playing, but there’s an outside chance he could top it all.
  9. Dave Krieg (494): He actually led the NFL in lowest sack rate in his final year as a starter (1996), but for most of his career, he was on some bad teams and took a lot of sacks. Yet he did so even when he was on good teams, too. He wasn’t mobile, and he wasn’t known for his quick release. Bad formula.
  10. Matt Ryan (488): He famously took a terrible sack that probably cost his team a Super Bowl win, and in that 2016 postseason, he went down eight times in three games. Overall, though, his sack rate is fairly normal, but when you play 15 seasons in the NFL and throw the ball a lot, the sacks add up.

You’ll notice immobile QBs with quick releases are not high on this list: guys like Dan Fouts (51st), Dan Marino (74th), and Peyton Manning (60th) were adept at throwing the ball away quickly before taking a loss of yards in their pass-happy offensive schemes. They did what was best for the team, rather than what was best for their statistics. Kudos to them, as each played a relatively long time and took fewer sacks still.

Think about this list, though, in the upcoming season when you watch Rodgers, Wilson, and Stafford play 17 games and find them climbing on this list. Again, we expect Wilson to top it by the end of the year, because we really don’t think Rodgers will play out the season in good health or effectiveness. And if Stafford continues to play for another handful of seasons, he could find himself way up the list, too. Stay tuned!