By John Turney
Since 1982 only Reggie White, Derrick Thomas, and DeMarcus Ware have accomplished that feat for their first six NFL seasons. Now add Donald to that list.
There are caveats to that, however. Lawrence Taylor had 9½ sacks as a rookie in 1981 (a year prior to sacks becoming official. He had 7½ sacks in 1981, less than eight but there were only nine games played in 1982. So, he'd be on it if not for some anomalies.
The six seasons of 8 or more sacks also put Donald on this list: Most seasons of 8 or more sacks among defensive tackles.
John Randle = 11 of 14 seasons
Alan Page = 11 of 15 seasons
Alex Karras = 8 of 12 seasons
Steve McMichael = 7 of 15 seasons
Aaron Donald = 6 of 6 seasons
Randy White = 6 of 14 seasons
Here are Donald's career stats through November 17, 2019.
McMichael was very underrated. Though Karras should be in the Hall, Roger Brown's ability may have canceled him out, sad to say. Fans wonder what numbers Mike Reid for the Bengals, and Andy Harmon for the Eagles, might have put up, had their careers not ended quickly...
ReplyDeleteLeaving Lawrence Taylor off this list doesn't pass the 'smell test'. If the criteria is 8 sacks in consecutive 16-game seasons then Taylor qualifies. Sacks in 1981 should also count.....the 1981 data is known. If one were to take Taylor's total in his first 64 regular season games chances are he makes this list. By adding the first 7 games from the 1983 season Taylor hits the 8-sack threshold for his second set of 16 NFL regular season games. The player had no control over a league-wide labor strike.
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