JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Sacks are among the most detrimental occurrences to an NFL offense. From 2020-2024, a drive’s odds of scoring plummeted from 41.2% to 23.3% if just one sack occurred on that drive.
Similarly, the average points per drive fell from 2.26 to just 1.03.
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Thus, an offense’s and quarterback’s ability to avoid these sacks and mitigate the losses when they do occur can be the factor that determines wins and losses.
The 2025 Tennessee Titans, for instance, lost 128 expected points to sacks last season, whereas the Denver Broncos lost just 39.04.
While it is a no-brainer that offensive line play has a massive impact on how often a quarterback is pressured and, thus sacked, a quarterback’s ability to avoid sacks has just as big an impact.
The statistic “Pressure-to-Sack %” is a metric designed to identify how adept a quarterback is at avoiding sacks.
It is calculated simply by measuring what percent of a quarterback’s pressured dropbacks become sacks. As a statistic, is pretty stable from year to year and follows QBs regardless of team or offensive line.
Mitigating the losses when sacks do occur is just as important. Giants rookie QB Jaxson Dart was actually the NFL’s best at doing this last season, ranking second among the top-29 QBs in both yards and EPA lost per sack.
The importance of this can’t be overstated. Dart, on average, lost just 4.3 yards per sack, while the Texans’ CJ Stroud lost a whopping 8.2 yards, nearly double Dart’s figure.
A lot goes into quarterback play, but avoiding these detrimental drive-killing sacks is among the most underappreciated talents of the position.
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The Jaguars’ Trevor Lawrence has historically been pretty solid at avoiding sacks. His quick time-to-throw and escapability have always been among his better attributes. According to FTN Fantasy, Lawrence avoided 12 sacks in 2025, sixth-most in the NFL.
Looking back to that “Pressure-to-Sack %” metric, Lawrence’s 16.9% ranked 14th among those same 29 quarterbacks. Where Lawrence really excelled was in mitigating the losses of those sacks.
On average, Lawrence lost 6.02 yards per sack (8th) and 1.62 expected points per sack (4th).
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Last season, only Bo Nix, Patrick Mahomes, and Drake Maye were better at avoiding and mitigating the impact of sacks.
As a team, the Jaguars could be better at preventing sacks. The 34.5% pressure rate allowed ranked 18th in the NFL, though injuries across the line did play a major factor. Cole Van Lanen’s snaps across four different O-Line positions is indicative enough of that.
Quarterbacks do play a massive role in how often sacks occur, but they are only as good as the offensive line in front of them. At the end of the day, more pressure equals more sacks, regardless of who’s hands are under the center’s butt.
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