Phillips had just five sacks in 2025 with the Miami Dolphins and Philadelphia Eagles, but had 63 quarterback sacks, 11th most in the NFL, according to Next Gen Stats. The 26-year-old has never earned double-digit sacks, with his career-high 8.5 coming in his rookie campaign. He was on pace to blow past that number in 2023, before a ruptured Achilles tendon killed him for the season. In 2024, he played just four games before tearing his ACL.
Phillips bounced back from the injury, played in 17 games last season and proved he can disrupt an offense. In Ejiro Evero’s defense, the pass rusher believes he can get to the quarterback at an even higher rate.
“I want to get those sack numbers up,” Phillips said Monday. “I’ve always known I can be a 10-plus, 13-plus sack guy.
Phillips led the Eagles with 34 QB pressures after the Week 10 trade, tied for 12th most to close the season.
As much as the new Panther knows pressure still equals production, he’d still like to stack more sacks.
“It’s hard because I think bags are naturally flashy things,” Phillips said. “Everybody talks about them, and even in my own head, it’s hard not to just focus on the bags and be like, ‘Oh shit, I don’t have that many bags.’ And then sometimes I don’t feel like I’m producing as much.”