In baseball, stats are king. In football, not so much. Sure, fantasy football enthusiasts will disagree but in the context of winning and losing games, stats in football can be deceiving.
One stat, however, does have some meaning. It’s called sack differential — the margin between the sacks a team allows and the sacks it amasses.
In 2023, the New York Giants racked up a sack differential of minus-51, the worst total since 2000, per NFL analyst Warren Sharp.
worst historical sack margins*
-51: 2023 NYG
-50
-49
-48
-47
-46
-45
-44
-43
-42
-41: 2002 HOU
-40: 2000 CAR, 2016 CLE
-39: 2018 OAK
-38: 2023 CAR, 2022 CHI
-37
-36
-35: 2019 MIA, 2001 DET*since 2000 https://t.co/0QWhcmD6si
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) July 1, 2024
The expansion Houston Texans of 2002, who allowed rookie quarterback David Carr to be sacked an NFL record 76 times, was a distant second with a minus-41.
The Giants allowed 85 total sacks in 2023, the most in the NFL since the 1986 Philadelphia Eagles gave up 104. New York’s defense had just 34 sacks of their own in 2023, which was 29th in the NFL.
All three of the Giants’ quarterbacks fell victim to the team’s leaky offensive line. Tommy DeVito was sacked 37 times in his nine games played (six starts). Daniel Jones was sacked 30 times in six games and Tyrod Taylor 17 times over 11 games (five starts).
Wide receiver Parris Campbell was charged with a sack on a poorly executed option play.
On defense, the Giants pass rush was largely ineffective when it came to getting home and sacking the quarterback despite coordinator Wink Martindale’s excessive blitzing. They were 30th in sack rate at 5.52%.
Kayvon Thibodeaux had 11.5 sacks to lead the team, followed by Jihad Ward (5.0) and Dexter Lawrence (4.5). No other player had more than 2.5 sacks.
