Player
Zach Sieler
DT · Dolphins
Zach Sieler: facts drawn from the play-by-play.
Late-bloomer arc: a Ferris State 7th-rounder who didn’t crack 4 sacks until year 5 — then exploded.
TrendSieler regular-season production by year
| Year | G | Sacks | TFLs | QB Hits | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 6 | 1.0 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| 2020 | 16 | 3.5 | 11 | 11 | 0 |
| 2021 | 17 | 2.0 | 6 | 3 | 1 |
| 2022 | 17 | 3.5 | 7 | 12 | 2 |
| 2023 | 17 | 10.0 | 11 | 22 | 1 |
| 2024 | 15 | 10.0 | 13 | 19 | 1 |
| 2025 | 17 | 5.5 | 10 | 9 | 0 |
Sacks by season
| Season | Sacks |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 1 |
| 2020 | 3.5 |
| 2021 | 2 |
| 2022 | 3.5 |
| 2023 | 10 |
| 2024 | 10 |
| 2025 | 5.5 |
Drafted 238th overall in 2018 out of Ferris State — a Division II program — Sieler took five seasons to break double-digit sacks. His first three NFL seasons combined: 6.5 sacks in 39 games. Then 2023 happened: 10 sacks, 22 QB hits, the breakout no scouting report saw coming.
2024 confirmed it (another 10 sacks). 2025 has settled into a slightly lower-volume version, but the pressure rate is still there — he’s on a 7– to 8-sack pace.
The 2022 inflection point: pre vs post-breakout looks like two different players.
SplitSieler career splits — early vs breakout era
| Era | Games | Sacks | QB Hits | TFLs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019–2021 (early) | 39 | 6.5 | 16 | 18 |
| 2022–2025 (breakout) | 66 | 29.0 | 62 | 41 |
In his first three years he was a rotational depth piece — 6.5 sacks across 39 games, or roughly one every six games. From 2022 forward he’s averaged a sack every 2.3 games and a QB hit nearly every game.
The breakout is real and durable: 29 sacks, 62 QB hits over 66 games since 2022 — numbers that would lead almost any team’s defensive front, and he’s done it from the interior, not the edge.
Most sacks by any interior DT in the NFL across 2023–2024 — ahead of Chris Jones, Quinnen Williams, and Aaron Donald.
RareInterior DT sack leaders, 2023–2024 regular season
| Player | Sacks |
|---|---|
| Zach Sieler | 20.0 |
| Nnamdi Madubuike | 19.5 |
| Chris Jones | 15.5 |
| DeForest Buckner | 14.5 |
| Dexter Lawrence | 13.5 |
| Vita Vea | 12.5 |
| Quinnen Williams | 11.5 |
| Christian Wilkins | 11.0 |
| Jeffery Simmons | 10.5 |
| Cameron Heyward | 10.0 |
| Aaron Donald | 8.0 |
Across 2023–2024, no interior DT in the NFL had more sacks than Sieler’s 20.0 — not Madubuike, not Chris Jones, not even Aaron Donald in his final season. The names below him on this list are the most expensive interior contracts in football; Sieler signed an extension reportedly around $30M guaranteed, a fraction of Chris Jones’s deal.
If you went out and bought interior pass rush over those two seasons, the most productive guy on the market was a Ferris State 7th-rounder.
He ranks 7th among ALL defensive linemen in 2023–2024 sacks — mixed in with edge rushers.
ComparisonNFL defensive-line sack leaders, 2023–2024 regular season
| Player | Sacks | QB Hits |
|---|---|---|
| Trey Hendrickson | 35.0 | 61 |
| Danielle Hunter | 28.5 | 45 |
| Myles Garrett | 28.0 | 58 |
| Josh Hines-Allen | 25.5 | 52 |
| Maxx Crosby | 22.0 | 51 |
| Travon Walker | 20.5 | 34 |
| Zach Sieler | 20.0 | 41 |
| Nnamdi Madubuike | 19.5 | 50 |
| Nick Bosa | 19.5 | 59 |
| Aidan Hutchinson | 19.0 | 50 |
Strip the position labels and read top-to-bottom: 6 of the top 7 are pure edge rushers. The seventh is Sieler, lined up at 3-tech and getting home anyway.
He outsacked Nick Bosa (a No. 2 overall pick), Aidan Hutchinson (a No. 2 overall pick), and Maxx Crosby in his peak years — from a position that the league’s pass-rush economy values at roughly 65 cents on the edge-rusher dollar.
2023: sack in 9 of 17 games — including his current best regular-season game.
MilestoneSieler 2023 — weeks with a sack
| Week | Sacks |
|---|---|
| 1 | 1.0 |
| 5 | 2.0 |
| 6 | 1.0 |
| 12 | 1.0 |
| 13 | 1.5 |
| 15 | 1.0 |
| 16 | 1.0 |
| 17 | 1.0 |
| 18 | 0.5 |
The 2023 breakout wasn’t a single hot streak — it was distributed: 9 games with a sack across the season, including a 2-sack Week 5 vs the Giants that announced the new version of him.
He outdid that on Week 14 of 2025: a 2.5-sack game, his career single-game high. For an interior rusher, getting two clean wins past NFL guards in a single afternoon is roughly the rarity equivalent of an edge guy putting up four.
Most of his sack production happens after halftime — the conditioning curve few interior linemen survive.
AnomalySieler pressure events by half (career)
| Half | Sacks | QB Hits |
|---|---|---|
| 1st Half | 16.5 | 38 |
| 2nd Half + OT | 19.0 | 40 |
Interior DLs typically fade late — the snaps are heavier, the double-teams are constant. Sieler does the opposite. 19.0 of his 35.5 career sacks (54%) have come after halftime, with the QB hit count following the same shape (40 vs 38).
For a 6-foot-6, 300+ pound interior lineman playing 60%+ of snaps, late-game pressure that *grows* is the conditioning marker scouts say separates rotational guys from every-down players. Sieler is now firmly in the latter group.
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