All season long, the conversation about who would end up as the AP Defensive Player of the Year centered around three stars. For the last two seasons, Dallas Cowboys edge rusher Micah Parsons has finished second in the voting, behind Pittsburgh’ TJ Watt in 2021 and San Francisco’s Nick Bosa in 2022. Parsons, along with Watt have been seen as in close competition behind Cleveland Brown’s edge rusher Myles Garrett since the early weeks of the season.
A new contender arrived a couple weeks ago, as a second Cowboys defender reached historic heights. Last week, cornerback DaRon Bland secured his sixth interception of the season, to tie for the league lead. What he did after though, returning it to the end zone, is what catapulted him into the conversation.
Bland scored his fourth return TD of the year, tying a record that had only been done three times in NFL history and not since 1993 when Eric Allen did it. Allen finished eighth in DPOY voting that year as Rod Woodson took the award home. Bland’s odds remained tall at that time, but with Twitter holding the receipts, yesterday’s historic interception capping Dallas’ 45-10 win over Washington set the stage for a tremendous race down the finish.