If you want to see the cyclical nature of the NFL, look no further than the Pittsburgh Steelers’ team MVP winners since 2011. Offensive players won the award for eight-straight seasons with Antonio Brown winning four times, Le’Veon Bell twice, Heath Miller once, and Juju Smith-Schuster once. It then flipped as the Steelers cycled back into a defense-dominated team. T.J. Watt has won the team MVP in four of the last five seasons, with Minkah Fitzpatrick winning in 2022.
NFL.com’s Eric Edholm predicted his team MVPs for each AFC team, and to nobody’s surprise, he ran it back with T.J. Watt winning it for the fifth time. That would break a tie with Antonio Brown for the most in franchise history.
“The quarterback play should be better in Pittsburgh than it has been one way or another, but I can’t put enough of my weight behind either Russell Wilson or Justin Fields to go with either here,” Edholm wrote. “Watt is the easier selection as the centerpiece of a very good defense that will remain the superior unit on this team.
“Last season was another brilliant one from Watt, whose next big milestone could be passing the 100-sack mark before he turns 30 years old in October. Short of a major injury, I can’t see how he doesn’t dominate again in 2024.”
Other than his injury-hampered season in 2022, Watt has shown zero signs of slowing down on his historic pace. He led the NFL in sacks in 2023, breaking the record for the most individual seasons with the sacks crown at three. Since the first season that he received NFL Defensive Player of the Year votes in 2019, Watt has received votes from the 50-person panel in every season other than 2022 when he was injured. He won the award in 2021 as he tied the NFL single-season sack record at 22.5.
In the 12 games that Watt has missed since joining the team in 2017, his replacements have only mustered 4.5 sacks. Watt had four sacks in a single game against the Cleveland Browns in 2022. Without Watt, the Steelers have gone 1-11. He very clearly has an enormous impact on the team’s performance.
If I had to list a few other names that could end up winning the team MVP award this season, I would list Minkah Fitzpatrick, Russell Wilson, George Pickens, and maybe Joey Porter Jr. as a dark-horse candidate.
