For the second time in his career, Steelers OLB T.J. Watt was snubbed for the AP Defensive Player of the Year award. The prevailing narrative all season long has been that Cleveland Browns DE Myles Garrett was going to win the DPOY Award, almost as if it was preordained halfway through the season. And that is exactly what happened on Thursday night at the annual NFL Honors event as Garrett received his first DPOY award.
You don’t want to get too carried away with the stat sheet as there is always more to contextualize when it comes to a player’s performance on the football field. But when the stats are as one-sided as they mostly are between Watt and Garrett it becomes pretty hard to overlook.
| T.J. Watt | Myles Garrett | |
| Games Played | 17 | 16 |
| Tackles | 68 | 42 |
| Solo Tackles | 48 | 33 |
| TFLs | 19 | 17 |
| Sacks | 19 | 14 |
| FF | 4 | 4 |
| INT | 1 | 0 |
| QB Hits | 36 | 30 |
| Pressures (PFF) | 86 | 86 |
| Pressures (PFR) | 50 | 37 |
| TDs | 1 | 0 |
Of all the main stats that people look at, there is not one where Garrett topped- Watt in 2023. I even sourced the pressures, which is more of a subjective stat, from two different outlets. One of those outlets, Pro Football Focus, has been vocal in its support of Garrett over Watt for the award. PFF has some more advanced metrics like pass-rush win rate where Garrett edged out Watt by a decent margin. This isn’t to say Garrett didn’t also have a phenomenal, All-Pro season. He definitely did, but this award is about who performed the best.
This isn’t the first time that Watt has been snubbed. He narrowly lost to Aaron Donald, 27 votes to 20, after the 2020 season when Watt led the league with 15 sacks. His brother, J.J. Watt, cautioned all throughout the year that people shouldn’t get bored with greatness, and this is what seems to have happened to Watt this season.
Watt himself will tell you that he doesn’t care about the individual rewards and that his main goal is to bring a Lombardi Trophy back to Pittsburgh. Some will say these awards are meaningless, but they go a long way toward a player’s eventual Hall of Fame résumé. With the pace Watt is on he should have no problems getting in some day, but he had a chance to become just the ninth player to ever win multiple DPOY awards and it’s a shame that didn’t happen after the season that he had.
