One of the NFL’s elite pass rushers, Denver Broncos linebacker Von Miller believes that the current single-season sack record of 22.5 can be crushed by someone posting a 30 sack season.
Yes. 30 sacks.
“I think it is doable,” Miller said on Wednesday (per ESPN).
Former New York Giants defensive end and Hall of Famer Michael Strahan set the record with 22.5 sacks in 2001.
Miller isn’t the first to “talk 30”. Earlier this week Oakland Raiders’ quarterback Derek Carr said that Khalil Mack’s goal was to reach the 30 sack milestone.
“That’s the number I shoot for, but I didn’t want him to tell everybody else,” Mack said Saturday.
“But at the same time, DC, he knows how hard we work, what kind of work we put in, and he knows what I want. But at the same time, realistically, we just want to get the record, at least.”
Miller pointed to the importance of starting the season strong in order to have a shot at the 30-sack mark and/or the sack record.
“You’ve got to come out, you’ve got to get 10 in that first month,” Miller said.
“You’ve got to get 10 in that first month, which is doable. You get two and a half, two and a half the next game and two and a half the next game after that. Then you might miss one game, and then you get two and a half, then you’ve got 10 in five games right there. Then if you go three, two, three, it’s definitely doable.”
Miller stressed the importance of a strong start because once a defensive players start piling up sacks they will get added attention from the offense.
“Teams are going to chip you, that’s definite, that’s just the gospel right there,” Miller said. “But you’ve got to take advantage of those opportunities. If you get five open rushes, you’ve got to win all five of those rushes. Out of five you might get two or three sacks out of those, that’s the math that I have,” Miller said.
“Out of all the rushes in the game, all of the plays in the game, out of those five plays, you’ve got to get home on those plays. It’s definitely doable.”