With the Steelers clinching a playoff berth last weekend, there came some legitimacy to T.J. Watt’s NFL Defensive Player of the Year campaign.
While it seems silly that the award would only be given to someone on a winning team, it is no coincidence that the online campaign of sorts for Watt has heated up over the last few days.
There are other contenders for the award, namely Myles Garret of the Cleveland Browns and Micah Parsons of the Dallas Cowboys. Many argue that Watt was by far the most dominant of the three, including former NFL All-Pro LB Takeo Spikes. He shared his thoughts on The BTM Podcast, which he hosts with fellow former NFL player Tutan Reyes, where he picked Watt as his DPOY.
“Often times we see so many players become prey or fall victim to the politics of the game,” Spikes said. “Oh well, you guys are not winning. Or your defense is not the number one defense in the NFL. That shit doesn’t even matter. When you turn that tape on, who do you say we gotta stop, we gotta get more than a hat on this guy right here because he is disruptive. If we don’t he’s gonna stop the flow of what we do. And that’s T.J. Watt.”
The statistical case seems to favor Watt as well. He racked up 19 sacks, leading the league compared to 14 each for Parsons and Garrett. When you take a look at these three, it’s no contest as far as stats go. Watt had the same or more tackles, tackles for losses, pass deflections, forced fumbles, fumble recoveries, interceptions, and defensive touchdowns as either of the other two primary contenders.
So why isn’t Watt the consensus award winner then? It’s tough to say, but for starters, Cleveland and Dallas are both seen as legitimate Super Bowl contenders, while the narrative around the Steelers is that they were lucky to even make the playoffs. Also, as Spikes alluded to, the Browns were the top-ranked defense in terms of yards per game in 2023, and the Cowboys were also in the top five. The Steelers, however, ranked just 21st.
And while these things have been used to discredit Watt, one could argue that it almost makes Watt’s season more impressive. He wasn’t surrounded with the quality of teammates as the other two, particularly on offense. After all, if the offense can’t put long drives together, the opponent will get more time of possession and naturally more yards.
Despite Watt being left off the NFLPA All-Pro team, he still seems to have at least a shot at the DPOY award. And there’s no debate about how important he is to this team, as the Steelers stand just 1-10 in games without him all-time. They will need to buck that trend if they want to be playing football beyond this Sunday.
