Windy City Gridiron
I wanted to take a look at some of the Chicago Bears' year-end sacks allowed numbers and compare them to other times in team history. Some of the data I use will be from my own personal Sackwatch breakdowns, while others will be standard statistics pulled from Pro Football Reference.
This was the busiest Sackwatch year I’ve done, and I appreciate everyone who checks in each week as I look for the “whys” on each play.
In 2024, the Bears led the league by taking 68 sacks and by being sacked on 10.7% of passes. That first number is the most sacks allowed in team history, but they’ve been sacked at a higher frequency as recently as 2022.
Here are the top eight most sacked years in franchise history, along with the percentage the passer was sacked.
Quarterback Caleb Williams ended his first season with several franchise records, including the most passing attempts in a season (562), most passing yards by a rookie (3,541), most completions by a rookie (351), most touchdown passes by a rookie (20), highest passer rating by a rookie (87.8), and tied for the most 300-yard passing games (4). He set the NFL rookie record for the longest streak of passes without an interception (353).
Williams did set the Bears record for most sacks taken with 68, but from a percentage standpoint, his 2024 isn’t even the worst in recent memory.
Here’s the list of the most frequently sacked quarterbacks in team history.
So, while he was taken down the most times in team history, he’s not even in the top ten in sack percentage. However, being sacked 10.8% of the time is far too often, so the new head coach and offensive play-caller will need to fix the pass-protection issues that has plagued this team. The league average in 2024 was 6.87%, and while Caleb’s play style may never see him go under that mark, the Bears need to find a way to protect him better.
And yes, that starts with him.
I had Williams down as being responsible for 15.5 of the sacks he took in 2024, which is the most I’ve put on a QB, or anyone else for that matter, in the Sackwatch era. However, it’s not the most on a per-game basis. Justin Fields in 2023 and Mitch Trubsky in 2019 were responsible for a higher percentage. Also, in Fields’ three-year run in Chicago, I had him down as responsible for 37 sacks in 38 games.
Here are the sacks I’ve blamed on the team’s starting quarterback since I’ve been tracking individual sacks allowed.
In 2011, Caleb Hanie played in six games, with four starts, and I credited him with more sacks than Cutler, with three.
The season in which I had the most sacks at the quarterback position overall was 2019, with 17.5. I had 15 on Trubisky and...
