So brock's answer, as expected, was the reported sacks.
We are talking about best pass rushers no? What other statistic do you normally measure a "pass rusher" effectiveness by...
Well, let's see...if you actually go to games, see live performances, evaluate on all factors...you might discover things that go beyond stats. Here's how football works: often times, the best defender might be subject to double or triple teams, or other schemes meant to limit effectiveness. Particularly when skill levels are disparate. I'm not saying that production isn't important, but to try to compare two different players based on one type of stat is silly.
You don't know the story on how the stats were amassed. Maybe a guy had a bunch of sacks against a lesser team. Maybe another guy had great stats in spite of triple teams. That's why UM's coaches have 6-figure salaries and you are living in mom's basement.
Normally, I would measure a "pass rusher" effectiveness by how disruptive he is, which INCLUDES whether an opposing team has to game-plan by running plays away from that particular player, double-teams, triple-teams, etc. I would also factor in harder factors to "quantify", but which could be seen on tape, such as forcing a QB to pull down his intended pass as he looks for another target, the "hurries", the "knockdowns", etc.
Brock, the "sack" stat wasn't invented and tracked until 1982. There are many great pass rushers who have no recorded "sacks", though some have tried to estimate these numbers.
The reason someone asked about "film" was to see what your response would be. And you answered "The film" followed by EVERY OTHER WORD OF YOUR RESPONSE being related to an analysis of statistics.
By the way, I am not claiming that I am some sort of expert either, but only that there is no substitute for seeing how a player plays LIVE and in person, how his opponent reacts to that player, and how much of an overall impact that player has even when he is one of the best on the field and his opponent is trying to neutralize him. With all due respect, sir, I simply doubt that you have seen any SoFla high school games live, and while you may have seen some highlight clips, you revert back to talking about statistics when questioned.
You are entitled to an opinion. But your opinion is that of a guy watching clips and reading stats lines from a comfy chair in Georgia. I trust our coaches and the evaluations they make with their own eyes and minds. I honestly do not believe we need some dude in Georgia constantly posting about how we should recruit some particular guy because his stats are "very impressive" (your words, not mine). We have one of the best defensive line coaches in the business, with access to every inch of video available for Chatman, and who has seen Chatman play live multiple times.
And then we have you and your statistical analysis.
It's one thing to "chat" on a website. It's another thing to post thousands of times about how we should be offering kids we have not offered.