Aaron Donald has 16.5 sacks in his last nine games. If he keeps that pace, the NFL will have a new (and legitimate) single-season sack king.

Michael Strahan’s record of 22.5 sacks in a season has stood for 17 years, but Aaron Donald may finally be the savior who takes it away. That’d be a good thing, because Strahan’s record is bullshit.

The Hall of Famer finished his career with 141.5 sacks — the sixth most all-time — but the one that put him one of ahead of Mark Gastineau was garbage. In short, Brett Favre intentionally got sacked in the final minutes of a Week 17 game to give his friend the record. You can read more about that here. What’s important now is that Donald has a real shot at getting to 23 sacks.

Through 12 games this season, Donald has 16.5 sacks. That puts the Rams’ star defensive tackle on pace for 22 sacks.

But Donald had zero sacks through the first three weeks of the season, so all 16.5 were tallied in his last nine games. If he continues the pace he’s been on since Week 4, Donald would finish with about 24 sacks.

It’s absurd that a defensive tackle could be the record breaker

A few players have come close to knocking off Strahan, but never a player from the interior of a defensive line. Since sacks started being recorded as a stat in 1982, no player listed as a defensive tackle has ever had more than 18 in a season.

Sacks are a stat usually dominated by defensive ends and linebackers rushing off the edge. Even Donald — a Pro Bowler in each of his first four seasons and the reigning Defensive Player of the Year — hadn’t topped 11 sacks in a season before 2018.

He spent his offseason training by dodging knives and then sat out preseason while angling for a new contract. He got that blockbuster deal at the end of August, and hit the field as an even better version of his already dominant self.

No player has come even close to being as disruptive as Donald:

Those are outrageous numbers for any player, but it’s close to inconceivable for a defensive tackle. For one, it means an opposing offensive line can double team Donald on most plays. Earlier in the season, the NFL’s Next Gen Stats showed the Rams defensive tackle gets doubled on 70 percent of his snaps. It hasn’t mattered.

Every week, Donald puts more highlights on tape than many defensive linemen do in an entire season. Just look at his destruction of the Detroit Lions in Week 13:

It was Donald’s fifth game in his last six that ended with at least two sacks. He’s coming for you, Strahan.

Donald’s chances at the record depend on if he’ll get to chase it

The Rams already clinched the NFC West and have the best record in the NFL at 11-1. A first-round bye in the postseason can be guaranteed by just two more wins, and the Rams just need to hold off the 10-2 Saints to secure homefield advantage.

The Saints’ 45-35 win against the Rams early in November means Los Angeles will keep the pedal down. But if New Orleans drops another game, the Rams could coast in Week 17 and rest their starters.

As cool as a record-breaking season would be for Donald, the priority for the Rams is making sure he’s healthy and ready to wreck shop in the playoffs.

So it remains to be seen if Donald will have the green light to destroy the San Francisco 49ers in Week 17. In the first matchup, Donald sacked 49ers quarterback C.J. Beathard four times and recorded six tackles for loss — each the most any player has had in a game this season.

If Donald doesn’t get another opportunity against San Francisco, he’ll have to rack up sacks against the Bears, Eagles, and Cardinals in the next three weeks.

Mitchell Trubisky, Carson Wentz, and Josh Rosen have each played 10 games so far in 2018, and have been sacked 19, 29, and 26 times, respectively. Rosen wasn’t yet the quarterback for the Cardinals when the Rams won 34-0 in Week 2, but Donald didn’t sack Sam Bradford in that game.

Donald needs 6.5 sacks in the final quarter of the regular season to get to 23. Hopefully he does just that and finally topples the NFL’s most bogus record.