Bio
- Height
- 6' 3"
- Debut
- 1985
- Draft
- 1985Rd 1, Pk 1
- College
- Virginia Tech
- Defensive Player of the Year
- 2x
Bio
- Height
- 6' 3"
- Debut
- 1985
- Draft
- 1985Rd 1, Pk 1
- College
- Virginia Tech
- Defensive Player of the Year
- 2x
Stats
Totals
Career regular season
- GP
- 279
- TOT
- 673
- SOLO
- 501
- AST
- 172
- SACK
- 200.0
- INT
- 2
- PD
- 16
- FF
- 30
Ranked among NFL players who qualify (TOT, SOLO, SACK, PD, FF: 8+ games; AST: 4+ games) that season; only the top 50 are shown. How each stat qualifies: glossary.
| GP: Games the player appeared in, however briefly. | TOT: Tackles made, solo and assisted together. | SOLO: Tackles made without help. | AST: Assisted tackles, where the player helped bring the carrier down. | SACK: Quarterbacks tackled behind the line of scrimmage. A shared sack counts as a half. | INT: Interceptions — thrown away by a quarterback, taken by a defender. | PD: Passes defensed — throws broken up before they were caught. | FF: Fumbles forced by knocking the ball loose. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 |  BUF | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1986 | BUF | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1987 | BUF | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1988 | BUF | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1989 | BUF | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1990 | BUF | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 19.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1991 | BUF | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1992 | BUF | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1993 | BUF | 16 | 106 | 82 | 24 | 14.0 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| 1994 | BUF | 15 | 80 | 56 | 24 | 10.0 | 1 | 4 | 4 |
| 1995 | BUF | 15 | 73 | 51 | 22 | 10.5 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
| 1996 | BUF | 16 | 89 | 68 | 21 | 13.5 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| 1997 | BUF | 16 | 63 | 48 | 15 | 14.0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 1998 | BUF | 15 | 50 | 35 | 15 | 10.0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 1999 | BUF | 16 | 45 | 31 | 14 | 7.0 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| 2000 | WSH | 16 | 55 | 46 | 9 | 10.0 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
| 2001 | WSH | 14 | 41 | 30 | 11 | 5.0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| 2002 | WSH | 16 | 49 | 37 | 12 | 9.0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| 2003 | WSH | 16 | 22 | 17 | 5 | 5.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
What the columns mean: TOT · SOLO · AST · SACK · INT · PD · FF
Career Postseason
- GP
- 20
- TOT
- 29
- SOLO
- 22
- AST
- 7
- SACK
- 14.5
- INT
- 0
- PD
- 1
- FF
- 1
Per game
Career regular season
- GP
- 279
- TOT
- 2.4
- SOLO
- 1.8
- AST
- 0.6
- SACK
- 0.7
- INT
- 0.0
- PD
- 0.1
- FF
- 0.1
Per game: season totals ÷ games played. Derived here — averages, completion rate and longest plays are the stored figures and are left as they are.
| GP: Games the player appeared in, however briefly. | TOT: Tackles made, solo and assisted together. | SOLO: Tackles made without help. | AST: Assisted tackles, where the player helped bring the carrier down. | SACK: Quarterbacks tackled behind the line of scrimmage. A shared sack counts as a half. | INT: Interceptions — thrown away by a quarterback, taken by a defender. | PD: Passes defensed — throws broken up before they were caught. | FF: Fumbles forced by knocking the ball loose. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | BUF | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1986 | BUF | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.9 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1987 | BUF | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1988 | BUF | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.9 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1989 | BUF | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.8 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1990 | BUF | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1991 | BUF | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1992 | BUF | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.9 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1993 | BUF | 16 | 6.6 | 5.1 | 1.5 | 0.9 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.3 |
| 1994 | BUF | 15 | 5.3 | 3.7 | 1.6 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| 1995 | BUF | 15 | 4.9 | 3.4 | 1.5 | 0.7 | 0 | 0.2 | 0.1 |
| 1996 | BUF | 16 | 5.6 | 4.3 | 1.3 | 0.8 | 0 | 0.1 | 0.3 |
| 1997 | BUF | 16 | 3.9 | 3 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0 | 0.1 | 0 |
| 1998 | BUF | 15 | 3.3 | 2.3 | 1 | 0.7 | 0 | 0 | 0.1 |
| 1999 | BUF | 16 | 2.8 | 1.9 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 0 | 0.1 | 0.2 |
| 2000 | WSH | 16 | 3.4 | 2.9 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0 | 0.1 | 0.3 |
| 2001 | WSH | 14 | 2.9 | 2.1 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0 | 0.1 | 0.2 |
| 2002 | WSH | 16 | 3.1 | 2.3 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 0 | 0.1 | 0.2 |
| 2003 | WSH | 16 | 1.4 | 1.1 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
What the columns mean: TOT · SOLO · AST · SACK · INT · PD · FF
What were Bruce Smith's career stats?
Bruce Smith played 19 seasons for the Bills and the Commanders. He recorded 673 tackles, 200 sacks and 2 interceptions. His best season was 1993: 106 tackles and 14.0 sacks.
League leaderboards and awards
19 seasons, 10 postseasons, 1985 to 2003
Bruce Smith finished top 10 in a stat 3 times; sits top 10 all time in sacks.
Awards
All-time career rank
- 1st in sacks (200.0)
- 221st in tackles (673)
Among the 9,233 NFL players with a career line on file, regular season. A place deeper than 300th is not listed.
Season top 10 finishes
Among qualified NFL players each season, as the glossary defines each stat. All-time places are among players on file.
More on Bruce Smith
Similar players
Closest career per-game profiles to Bruce Smith among NFL players at the same position.
- Hugh DouglasAlike in Forced fumbles, Tackles, Solo tackles63out of 100 on profile similarity
- Kabeer Gbaja-BiamilaAlike in Tackles, Solo tackles62out of 100 on profile similarity
- John RandleAlike in Forced fumbles, Sacks59out of 100 on profile similarity
- Tony BennettAlike in Forced fumbles, Tackles, Solo tackles50out of 100 on profile similarity
- Andy HarmonAlike in Tackles, Forced fumbles50out of 100 on profile similarity
Compare Bruce Smith with Hugh Douglas, Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila, John Randle