Tag: NFL Defensive Player of the Year

Giants’ Dexter Lawrence is dominating at a historic level

New York Giants nose tackle Dexter Lawrence is putting together a historic season and dominating at level rarely before seen.

There haven’t been many positives for the New York Giants here in 2024 thus far. At 2-5 and appearing directionless, fans are finding fewer and fewer things to root for.

One positive has been the play of their peerless nose tackle, Dexter Lawrence, who is performing at a historic rate for an NFL interior defensive lineman.

Lawrence is virtually unblockable. Teams are smartening up after getting ravaged by him and he is double-teamed on nearly every snap. When he is off the field, the Giants are a different defense and are susceptible to big plays.

However, when Lawrence is on the field, he’s an entirely different animal than anyone else in the league — even while being double-teamed.

On Sunday, in the Giants’ lopsided loss to the Philadelphia Eagles at home, Lawrence racked up five tackles and two more sacks, raising his season total to nine — the most in the NFL.

Lawrence is, by far, the best pass-rushing interior lineman in the league. Through seven weeks, no other interior defender has more than four sacks. That’s less than half of Lawrence’s total.

Lawrence is not only productive, he is durable. He has played 76 percent of the Giants’ defensive snaps in 2024. For a 6-foot-4, 340-pound man that is quite a workload.

There is no question that when the NFL Honors are announced after this season, Lawrence’s name will be mentioned for Defensive Player of the Year.

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Micah Parsons defends Myles Garrett winning AP Defensive Player of the Year

Micah Parsons wasn’t unhappy about Myles Garrett winning NFL Defensive Player of the Year… but Parsons may have undersold himself in the process.

Any time there are awards, there are people who will be Loud Mad about the winners of those awards. And on Thursday, when some of the Associated Press NFL awards came out in advance of the NFL Honors show, that certainly happened.

One instance happened when Cleveland Browns edge-rusher Myles Garrett took home the AP Defensive Player of the Year award, which had one fan comparing stats between Garrett, Pittsburgh Steelers edge-rusher T.J. Watt, and Dallas Cowboys edge-rusher Micah Parsons. This individual had a real problem with the Garrett selection… but Garrett himself didn’t take issue at all.

Here’s what’s interesting, though — per Pro Football Focus’ advanced metrics, Garrett was double-teamed on 90 of his pass-rush snaps, and he totaled four sacks and 15 total pressures when he was doubled.

Parsons, on the other hand, faced double-teams on 117 of his pass-rushing snaps, and he compiled three sacks and 27 total pressures when he was doubled.

So, it was quite generous of Parsons to stand up for Garrett (spoiler: I’m an AP voter, and I voted for Parsons), and as far as making an impact with double-teams, Parsons was still The Man in 2023.

Even presented with the numbers, Parsons was firm in his opinion, which you certainly have to respect.

Browns DE Myles Garrett beats out T.J. Watt for NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award

Garrett takes home the hardware!

After a full season of debate, Cleveland Browns defensive end and five-time Pro Bowler Myles Garrett has been named NFL Defensive Player of the Year of T.J. Watt of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Despite only racking up one sack down the stretch of the season, Garrett led the NFL in pressures and pass rush win rate, and was PFF’s highest-graded pass rusher all while seeing the most double teams in the NFL. NFL voters care about more than just the box score and see when a player impacts the game, which Garrett did prevalently for the Browns despite the lack of sacks.

Garrett finished the season with 14 sacks, a pass rush win rate of 27.4 percent, and 89 total pressures on over 100 fewer pass rush snaps than the likes of Maxx Crosby of the Las Vegas Raiders and Aidan Hutchinson of the Detroit Lions.

This is the first NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award for the five-time Pro Bowler, and hopefully not the last as the Browns look to continue their dominance on the defensive side of the ball for the foreseeable future.

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T.J. Watt seems to hint that Browns DE Myles Garrett has won NFL Defensive Player of the Year

It appears that Watt already knows the outcome.

The NFL Honors are just getting underway, but it appears the NFL Defensive Player of the Year award could have already been linked. Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett is the betting favorite, and T.J. Watt of the Pittsburgh Steelers is already lamenting on social media.

Garrett finished with 14 sacks on the season but led the NFL in pressures down the stretch despite finishing with just one sack over the back half of the season. He also led the NFL in pass rush win rate, was PFF’s highest-graded pass rusher, and was double-teamed more than any other pass rusher in the NFL.

This would be what we hope is the first of many dominating honors for Garrett. Even Micah Parsons of the Dallas Cowboys, another finalist for the award, agrees with what seems to be the decision made by voters.

If this is the case, then Garrett wins a well-deserved honor after making his fifth Pro Bowl as the best player on the best defense in the NFL.

 

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Darius Slay breaks down why DaRon Bland deserves DPOY award

Philadelphia Eagles All-Pro Darius Slay breaks down why Dallas Cowboys CB DaRon Blands deserves the Defensive Player of Year award

Darius Slay is one of the top cornerbacks in the NFL, and he’s also a man who recognizes quality football while not being afraid to show love to the opposition.

Dallas won their 13th straight game at home on Thanksgiving Day, blowing out Washington, 45-10, in front of a raucous home crowd. In the win, second-year cornerback DaRon Bland returned an interception 63 yards for the Cowboys’ final score in a 45-10, breaking the record for interception returns for a touchdown in one season.

Entering Thursday, Bland had been tied with Eric Allen (1993), Jim Kearney (1972), and Ken Houston (1971) for the record.

He’s now the sole owner, and Slay, the Eagles star and best cornerback, showed no hate in proclaiming Blandthis year’s Defensive Player of the Year.

During Philadelphia’s final practice of the week on Friday, Slay explained his reasoning for crowning the opposition and a hated rival.

To put what Bland is doing into perspective, Bland has more defensive touchdowns than any other NFL team this season.

The Indianapolis Colts are second with three.

Bland’s five touchdowns equal or more than notable offensive stars like Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley, and Las Vegas Raiders running back Josh Jacobs.

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Raiders DE Maxx Crosby should be your favorite for Defensive Player of the Year

Maxx Crosby is the best all-around EDGE in the NFL and should be everyone’s favorite for Defensive Player of the Year. Period.

There’s this thing you notice around the league when it comes to Maxx Crosby. It’s that no matter what he accomplishes, no matter how many times he wrecks a game, there always seems to be this element of surprise.

His own interim head coach was skeptical at first about just what kind of force Crosby was and his tremendous work ethic. He quickly found out.

“When I first got here, he jumped off to me, like this guy is in the building at 6am, doesn’t leave until 6pm,” Antonio Pierce said of Crosby. “Then you watch him practice, I remember Denzel Perryman was like, ‘AP you haven’t seen nothing like this.’ I’m like, ‘I’ve seen guys work hard and effort.’ And no, he’s right, I have not. I have not ever seen a player be consistent like Maxx Crosby.”

Pierce added that Crosby’s energy, purpose, and mindset reminded him of when he played. And brought to mind players like Bruce Smith and Michael Strahan — two Hall of Fame defensive ends. Two of the best to ever do it. Keep in mind, Pierce was the starting middle linebacker on a Super Bowl winning team too.

Crosby runs so hot all the time that Pierce said he actually makes him worry whether the fifth year edge rusher can keep it up.

“You get nervous, you always wonder if he’s going get burnt out, but he’s not,” Pierce said. “I’m going to continue to keep trying to match his energy, but at a game, on that field, on that grass, you saw the effort. The way he plays is reckless. He gives up his body for his team.”

Maybe Pierce is touching on something there. Maxx himself has talked about how many analysts seems to discount his abilities as an “effort guy”

The shock often seems to suggest either they haven’t been paying attention before or seem to be judging him through the lens of his being a fourth round pick. And after heaping all the praise, they just revert back to the default position of getting behind the former first round guys like TJ Watt and Myles Garrett.

Just this morning I saw a sports network — who I won’t mention — put out their prediction for Defensive Player of the Year. Of the ten votes from their staff, half of them voted for Watt. Three others voted for Garrett. While only one voted for Maxx.

How does this happen? Crosby, Watt, and Garrett are all tied with 9.5 sacks. But Crosby leads the league in pressures (53) and tackles for loss (13). Neither Watt nor Garrett are even in the top ten in pressures or the top 15 in tackles for loss.

And there isn’t an edge rusher in the league who comes within a country mile of Crosby’s 56 combined tackles (35 solo). For comparison, Garrett has 25 combined tackles (19 solo) and Watt has 22 combined tackles (15 solo).

There simply is no better all-around defensive player in the league right now than Maxx Crosby. His Super Bowl winning interim coach has never seen anything like him, because Maxx is one of one.

It’s unfortunate he won’t be judged on an even plane to the likes of Watt and Garrett. Even leading them by wide margins in most categories isn’t enough to get Crosby his recognition.

Nick Bosa named NFL Defensive Player of the Year

To nobody’s surprise really … #GoBucks

It seemed like just a formality, and now it is official.

Former Ohio State and current San Francisco 49er defensive end Nick Bosa was named the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year on Thursday night. The voting wasn’t even that close, with Bosa receiving a whopping 46-of-50 first-place votes.

He joins another former Buckeye, wide receiver Garrett Wilson, as award winners during the NFL Honors Ceremony.

Bosa received the honor from the Associated Press thanks to a monster of a 2022 season. He led the league in sacks with 18.5 and helped anchor a defense that led the league in points allowed per game (16.3), and yards surrendered per contest (300.6). It was by far his best year in the NFL yet.

The Niners had designs of winning a Super Bowl, but their run came to an end in the NFC Championship game thanks to a dominant performance from the Philadelphia Eagles.

Bosa becomes just the second former Ohio State player to win the NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award, joining Denver Broncos linebacker Randy Gradishar back in 1978.

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Two former Ohio State players named finalists for NFL AP awards

Former Ohio State football players continue to make Buckeye Nation proud! #GoBucks

Even the most critical college football fan can’t argue with the fact that the Ohio State football program churns out a ton of NFL players. Going even further, unless it’s just spouting off nonsense, even SEC fans would have to agree that some of those players have turned out to be some of the top performers at the highest level of the game.

So much so that former Buckeyes have won numerous awards in the NFL including instances of being rushing leaders, receiving leaders, rookie recognitions, and more.  The latest comes by way of two players that got their career training in Columbus that have been named finalists for two AP NFL awards.

The 49ers’ Nick Bosa is up for one of the most coveted awards handed out yearly as the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year along with Kansas City Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones and Dallas Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons. Bosa is the odds-on favorite to take the award home as the league’s sack leader, but it’s not official until — well … it’s official.

But it’s not just Bosa. Rookie Jets wide receiver Garrett Wilson is also one of three finalists for the Offensive Rookie of the Year award along with San Francisco quarterback Brock Purdy and Seattle Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker III.

Wilson led all rookies with a total of 83 catches and 1,103 yards during the 2022-2023 season. He also scored 4 touchdowns and averaged 13.3 yards per catch.

Ohio State has seen this before. The program went on a pretty remarkable run of winning the NFL’s Rookie Defensive Player of the Year Awards. The Buckeyes had a player take home the honor four out of five years from 2016 through 2020 with Joey Bosa (2016), Marshon Lattimore (2017), Nick Bosa (2019), and Chase Young (2020) all making Buckeye fans proud.

Time will tell if we’ll see another trophy for a former Ohio State player, but you have to like the chances of at least one of these coming to fruition. The winners of the AP awards will be announced at the NFL Honors ceremony on February 9.

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Texans DE J.J. Watt disputes Rams’ Aaron Donald as Defensive Player of the Year; supports Steelers’ T.J. Watt

Houston Texans DE J.J. Watt held firm that his brother, Pittsburgh Steelers OLB T.J. Watt, should have been the 2020 NFL Defensive Player of the Year.

Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt is pretty biased when it comes to his youngest brother, Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt.

While the youngest of the three Watt boys had a career year with the Steelers in 2020, it wasn’t enough to convince voters, who gave the award to Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald, his third career award, tying Lawrence Taylor and the oldest Watt for the most in the NFL history.

J.J. took to Twitter on Saturday night to make the case his brother should have been the Defensive Player of the Year, and made sure to congratulate Donald and underscore he will be a Pro Football Hall of Famer in his own right someday.

“Aaron Donald is an absolutely incredible player,” Watt tweeted. “I love watching him play & he’s headed to the Hall of Fame without question. This has nothing to do with AD personally.

“This is me saying what my brother won’t.

“TJ played 1 less game and STILL led the NFL in every major category.”

Watt posted the statistics side by side with Donald and demonstrated the the one area where Donald had his youngest brother beat was forced fumbles. T.J. produced two while Donald recorded four.

On Nov. 18, Watt told Houston media he was not surprised to see his brother leading the NFL in tackles for loss.

“I know how hard he works,” Watt said. “I know his capabilities. I know what type of player he is. I know what type of defense he’s on. I know what type of team he’s on and I know how relentless he is and how great he is. It doesn’t stand out to me because that’s what I expect to see from him. He’s a phenomenal player. He should absolutely be in the Defensive Player of the Year conversation and he’s doing a great job.”

And that is why Watt is saying what his brother won’t.

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