With the loss of J.J. Watt to injury, the league is not only without its best player this season, but without arguably its best pass-rusher, too. Watt is a devastating pass-rusher who has set the standard when it comes to getting after the QB, really since entering the league in 2011.
There are players having excellent seasons, but the overall number of dominant pass-rushers this season seems to be unusually down, and the sack numbers for many of them highlight the relative lack of total pressure across the board.
Here are the top 25 pass-rushers in the NFL right now, several of whom are leaning heavily on a past body of work to still be ranked as close to the top as they are, because so far in 2016, they haven’t been able to match the standards of previous seasons.