DeForest Buckner shares funny story of when a rookie Kwity Paye earned his respect

It’s often said that stats aren’t everything. There’s a ton of context behind stats that you can’t really pick up from reading a box score. But still, stats lead to accolades and players getting paid. That’s why players are serious about making sure all of their stats get counted.

Indianapolis Colts defensive tackle DeForest Buckner recently joined former defensive lineman Chris Long on an episode of Long’s show: Green Light. The two defensive linemen covered a ton of topics, with one being stat corrections. They talked about the process of making sure they were being credited for all of the plays they were making, and the conversation led to Buckner telling a hilarious story about his teammate Kwity Paye.

Long asked Buckner if it’s breaking the code to ask for a stat correction on a sack that was credited a half sack even though one player may deserve full credit. While it would be taking half a sack away from a teammate, Long argues that you still have to get the correction because it’s money on the line. Buckner agreed but then jumped into a story about Paye.

He explained that on Kwity Paye’s first career sack, he and Paye got to the quarterback at the same time, but Paye was credited with the full sack. Since it was Paye’s first career sack, Buckner let him have it. However, later in that season, when the Colts were playing the San Francisco 49ers, Buckner’s former team, Buckner got to the quarterback and as he was bringing him down, Kwity Paye made the decision not to get involved, so that Buckner would be credited for a full sack.

This was Paye’s way of essentially paying Buckner back. DeForest Buckner let Kwity Paye have his moment, and Paye let Buckner have his. Buckner said he knew in that moment that Paye was a great rookie.

Two years later, Paye and Buckner are still getting to the quarterback together, but there are more than enough sacks to go around. The Colts currently have 46 sacks, which is third-most in the NFL this season. Kwity Paye has 7.5 of those sacks and DeForest Buckner has six. Indy will need to keep getting after the quarterback as the team tries to make the playoffs.

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