Six games into his four-year, $96 million contract, New York Jets defensive tackle Quinnen Williams has just 0.5 sacks. Last season, he finished with 12.0 sacks. He had 5.0 sacks through six games.
Clearly, Williams has taken a step back in the first year of his new contract, right?
Wrong.
Evaluating defensive linemen based solely on the sack column is foolish. Sacks are wonderful, but they hardly tell the whole story about a player’s impact.
Williams typically plays around 50 snaps per game. If he gets one sack in a game, does that sack alone make the game a great performance?