Myles Garrett has been in range to break the NFL’s single-season sack record for weeks, but Week 17 was the ultimate target. The current record holders, Michael Strahan (2001) and T.J. Watt (2021), accomplished the feat of 22.5 sacks during 16-game seasons. After becoming the fastest player to reach 20 sacks in league history, getting there in Week 14 against the Tennessee Titans, Garrett was well on pace to shatter that mark.
But sitting at 22 sacks entering last week’s home game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Garrett was blanked in the sack column for the first time since week 6 — also against Pittsburgh — and it was clear to everyone watching why that happened. Quarterback Aaron Rodgers did everything in his power to avoid Garrett throughout the game, and though the Steelers denied that his pending sack record factored into their game plan, it’s hardly a secret that Watt, their superstar edge rusher, was among the two players currently in possession of the record.
Regardless, Garrett has no choice but to set his sights on Cleveland’s Week 18 finale at Cincinnati, where he can still break the record, with the asterisk of needing a 17-game season to do it. When you consider him drawing the bulk of each opponent’s attention, and his closest pass-rushing sidekick this year is Alex Wright (5.5 sacks) on a 12-loss team that’s typically trailing in games, the accomplishment would be legendary nonetheless.
Garrett wasn’t fretting the sack record after Sunday’s win over the Steelers, and he shouldn’t be entering this week’s finale, either. When asked about Garrett’s quest, and his potential supporting role in it, Bengals QB Joe Burrow struck a completely different chord than Rodgers and Josh Allen did in recent weeks.
Myles Garrett’s sack record is coming (and Joe Burrow knows it)
Garrett has sacked 52 different quarterbacks over the course of his nine-year NFL career, but Burrow has a not-so-flattering distinction on his all-time list. He’s been sacked by Garrett 12 times, tied with Lamar Jackson for the most in Garrett’s QB graveyard.
The Bengals have annually deployed one of the NFL’s most porous offensive lines, and 2025 has been no different. Burrow has only appeared in seven games due to a turf toe injury, but when you combine his games with fellow QBs Jake Browning and Joe Flacco, they’ve been sacked a total of 42 times this season, which would be the fifth-most in football.
Burrow played all 17 games during the 2024 season, and took 48 total sacks. In the 2020s, at least, it comes with the territory of playing QB for the Bengals, and Burrow admitted as much during Wednesday’s presser ahead of Week 18.
“I’m certainly not gonna overcompensate either way. I’m not gonna go out of my way to not let him get the record, and I’m not gonna go out of my way to let him get the record, either. I’m gonna go and play football. There’s gonna be situations that a sack is the best of the bad outcomes of that play, and maybe I take one. There’s gonna be other situations that I’m about to get sacked, and I need to throw it away in that situation. It’s such a situational game that I don’t think you can go in thinking one way or the other; every play is so different.”
Joe Burrow on Myles Garrett’s quest for the single-season sack record.
“There are going to be situations where a sack is the best of the bad outcomes of that play.” pic.twitter.com/RuPaiDVl4R
— Andrew Siciliano (@AndrewSiciliano) December 31, 2025
Again, Burrow was much more matter-of-fact about the whole situation than Allen and Rodgers, who both clearly wanted no part of being a part of Garrett’s timeless highlight.
If you’re a pass rusher who needs a sack for a personal goal, NFL record, contract incentive, or anything in between, seeing the Cincinnati Bengals looming on the schedule is a sight for sore eyes.
