The Houston Texans have watched as Jonathan Greenard has put together a breakout season. The 3rd round pick from the class of 2020 has had a good year before in 2021. He had eight sacks that season and 32 tackles, putting together a strong outing and propelling the expectations for him going forward.
He struggled with injuries in 2022, amassing only one sack, but 2023 has seen that turnaround greatly. Through fourteen games, Greenard has racked up 52 tackles and 12.5 sacks on the season and doesn't appear to be slowing down one bit. With three games to go, the current team leader in sacks may look to etch his name in some rarified air.
Greenard is already sixth in team history for most sacks in a season, trailing Mario Williams 14 sack performance, and of course the four best outings of JJ Watt's career (16, 17.5, and 20.5 x2). Should Greenard get another two sacks, he'll have the most sacks in a single season by a Texans player who isn't named Watt.
Jonathan Greenards 12.5 sacks is now the 6th highest single season sack total in franchise history.
— Cody Johnson (@FB_LoneStar) December 18, 2023
J.J. Watt has the top 4 SZN’s with (20.5) (20.5) (17.5) and (16) sacks, Mario Williams is 5th with (14) sacks in a season.
Breakout campaign from Greenard#WeAreTexans pic.twitter.com/ChmmESuh13
And right now, that seems very realistic. Especially if Will Anderson Jr. returns in time to help the defensive line out. While not nearly near the sack-total that Greenard is, Anderson has really helped take the pressure off of Greenard this year, by forcing the offensive lines of the opposing teams to key on him far more often than just on Greenard.
Plus with a second matchup against the Titans on the horizon, the idea that Greenard can break 14.5 sacks is a very realistic possibility, especially with a healthy Anderson next to him.
The Cleveland Browns are next and have a wrecked offensive line themselves, plus a pretty immobile quarterback in Joe Flacco, and then after that, you have the Indianapolis Colts, who may be a bit harder to get sacks against.
So while 20 sacks seems impossible, getting close to some of Watt's less impressive outings is very doable, not to mention knocking Williams off the Top 5.