Calais Campbell is 38 years old, at an age when most NFL players have retired. But the pass rusher is still producing, with 12 sacks for Baltimore and Atlanta the last two seasons, and there's still a market for his services; a reunion with the Falcons is possible. But he's not the only such player out there.
There will always be teams interested in paying for sacks. At least for a short period of time. Each offseason, there a lot of Campbell type players available. They typically sign short-term deals, and move on. With these guys playing into their 30s (and as Campbell shows, late-30s), there are more available every year.
The table below, compiled using the search tools at pro-football-reference.com, shows active players in terms of total sacks accumulated over the past 10 years; minimum of 50 sacks. Players in bold are current free agents; Campbell has a lot of company. Players in italics have changed teams this offseason. Haason Reddick is the anomaly; a guy in his prime -- though he turns 30 in September -- who just switched teams while at the top of his game. (For a couple of the older free agents, like Melvin Ingram or Jason Pierre-Paul, this might be it.)
Most of the rest are like Campbell; wrong side of 30, floating about from team to team, but still a candidate to rack up another 5-10 sacks at their new -- or future -- homes.
If you're concerned about your favorite team's pass rush, don't despair. There are options, and between now and training camp, there's a good chance they'll be adding one of these players.
| ACTIVE SACK LEADERS, 2014-2023 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | G | Sk | FF | FR | TFL |
| Khalil Mack | 151 | 101.5 | 30 | 12 | 136 |
| T.J. Watt | 104 | 96.5 | 27 | 10 | 107 |
| Cameron Jordan | 161 | 96.0 | 10 | 6 | 130 |
| Chandler Jones | 124 | 94.5 | 30 | 12 | 99 |
| Myles Garrett | 100 | 88.5 | 17 | 5 | 94 |
| Von Miller | 133 | 88.5 | 16 | 8 | 108 |
| Danielle Hunter | 119 | 87.5 | 11 | 4 | 108 |
| Justin Houston | 127 | 85.5 | 16 | 10 | 98 |
| Chris Jones | 123 | 75.5 | 12 | 3 | 78 |
| Cameron Heyward | 146 | 73.0 | 7 | 6 | 109 |
| Calais Campbell | 152 | 69.0 | 12 | 9 | 112 |
| Yannick Ngakoue | 123 | 69.0 | 21 | 3 | 71 |
| Joey Bosa | 93 | 67.0 | 15 | 4 | 82 |
| Matt Judon | 114 | 66.5 | 9 | 4 | 87 |
| Preston Smith | 146 | 66.0 | 10 | 6 | 69 |
| Jason Pierre-Paul | 123 | 65.0 | 16 | 7 | 78 |
| Brandon Graham | 147 | 61.5 | 17 | 6 | 105 |
| DeForest Buckner | 129 | 61.0 | 9 | 10 | 80 |
| Za'Darius Smith | 123 | 60.0 | 10 | 2 | 76 |
| Trey Hendrickson | 93 | 59.5 | 12 | 0 | 52 |
| Denico Autry | 142 | 59.0 | 7 | 3 | 80 |
| Shaquil Barrett | 131 | 59.0 | 22 | 5 | 73 |
| Frank Clark | 128 | 58.5 | 14 | 7 | 67 |
| DeMarcus Lawrence | 137 | 58.5 | 20 | 8 | 93 |
| Leonard Floyd | 121 | 58.0 | 4 | 7 | 63 |
| Haason Reddick | 114 | 58.0 | 16 | 5 | 69 |
| Melvin Ingram | 128 | 56.5 | 14 | 9 | 77 |
| Jerry Hughes | 162 | 55.0 | 17 | 5 | 79 |
| Nick Bosa | 68 | 53.5 | 10 | 3 | 72 |
| Bud Dupree | 119 | 53.0 | 12 | 4 | 70 |
| Jadeveon Clowney | 126 | 52.5 | 15 | 9 | 99 |
| Maxx Crosby | 83 | 52.0 | 9 | 3 | 88 |
| Markus Golden | 127 | 51.0 | 11 | 5 | 68 |
--Andy Richardson