Micah Parsons and the rookie Game-Wrecker Triple Crown
by Jason Pauley
In his last six games, Micah Parsons has been playing at a level on par with the best defensive players in the NFL (rookie or veteran). From games 8 to 13, Parsons has 9.5 sacks, 10 tackles for a loss, and 16 quarterback hits. No player has more sacks, QB hits, or Tackles for Loss in the NFL than the rookie Parsons over those last 6 games.
Top three in Sacks, QB Hits, and TFL over the last six games (8–13):
I am calling the combination of sacks, QB hits, and TFL the Game-Wrecker Triple Crown in which I’ve carefully selected (one might say cherry-picked) these three stats. I selected these three stats because they help tell the story of course, however, they fit well together in terms of what you look for in someone playing Parsons’ positions(s). For the entire season, he has separated himself from the other rookies in the league and currently leads all rookies in each of these three categories.
Here are the top three rookies for the year so far (through game 13)
It’s safe to say that Parsons will win the rookie Game-Wrecker Triple Crown, he would probably win it even if he didn’t play the rest of the season.
Aside from the 2021 rookie triple crown, it’s possible that Parsons can win the all-time rookie Game-Wrecker Triple Crown by breaking the rookie record for Sacks, QB Hits, and Tackles for loss.
Two important caveats to note here.
- Yes, he has the extra 17th game, it’s not fair, but that’s life. We all forgot about all of the 14-game season records that have been broken by players in the 16-game era.
- The “all-time” record is all-time since the beginning of the stat. These are fairly new metrics with Tackles for loss going back to 1999 and QB hits going back to 2006. I’m sure someone like Heinie Benkert or Two-Bits Homan pulled this off in the ’20s, but we’ll never know.
Caveats aside, here is where Micah Parsons stands with 4 games remaining in the season. His current pace, which we can’t assume will play out perfectly, puts him first all-time for rookies in Sacks and QB hits and 2nd all-time in Tackles for Loss.
Sacks are the much more talked about metric, the other two are important, but aren’t the sexy stat that sacks are. So, I created the infographic below to track Parsons on his potential journey to the official rookie sack record currently held by Jevon Kearse (1999). (note the unofficial rookie sack record is also the unofficial sack record period. It was Al “Bubba” Baker with 23.0 sacks in his rookie season in Detroit, 1978).
It will be fun to follow over the next four weeks to see how his potentially historic season plays out.
Source: pro-football-reference
