The breakout year of Trey Hendrickson has continued, with the New Orleans Saints pass rusher adding two more sacks to his season total after Week 15’s game with the Kansas City Chiefs. He’s up to 12.5 sacks on the year so far, good enough to tie Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald for the most sacks in the NFL.
They aren’t alone at the top, though. While Hendrickson and Donald are tied at 12.5, they’re trailed closely by Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker T.J. Watt (12.0) and Green Bay Packers defender Za’Darius Smith (11.5). Watt is scheduled to face the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday night, so he’ll have a shot at taking the lead.
What’s most impressive about this is that Hendrickson has achieved this high sacks total on the fewest opportunities in the group. As pointed out by Nick Underhill for NewOrleans.Football, he’s the only player out of these top four sack artists to see fewer than 400 pass-rush snaps, per Pro Football Focus:
- Trey Hendrickson: 353 pass rush snaps
- T.J. Watt: 432 pass rush snaps (MNF pending)
- Za’Darius Smith: 482 pass rush snaps
- Aaron Donald: 504 pass rush snaps
It’ll be fascinating to see who ends up on top at the end, but Hendrickson doing more with less than his competition is noteworthy. However, he could be unavailable for Week 16’s matchup with the Minnesota Vikings. Underhill reported that Hendrickson suffered a stinger — a nerve injury common in contact sports — late in Sunday’s Chiefs game.
He might be able to return in time for Friday’s kickoff, but the short week of recovery time could keep him inactive. We’ll know more once the first Saints injury report is released, so check back for updates.
