On Thursday, February 10th, the NFL will present the NFL Honors annual event to recognize the best players and performances from the 2021 season. It is widely expected that Pittsburgh Steelers OLB T.J. Watt will finally be recognized as AP Defensive Player of the Year. Watt has already been recognized as the Defensive Player of the Year by Pro Football Writers of America, Committee of 101 and the Sporting News. He was the runaway winner by his peers through Pro Bowl Confidential and is the odds-on betting favorite.
Importance of DPOY
While most NFL awards are not as valued by Steeler Nation, given the Steelers proud history of defensive dominance, the Defensive Player of the Year Award stands apart. Watt would become the 7th Steelers defensive player to win the award and the 8th overall. As a matter of Steeler Nation pride, the Steelers assert dominance over this award overall as no other team can claim more than 3 different winners, and arguably the significance of Watt’s winning this award is 2nd only to being named to the Hall of Fame as it pertains to individual accolades in Steelers lore.
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Ranking T.J. Watt vs. Steelers DPOY past winners:
- Joe Greene (1972): In his early years, Joe Greene was absolutely unblockable and it resonated with the first of his two DPOY recognitions. It wasn’t even close as he took 48% of the vote in amassing career best 11 (unofficial) sacks and it did not even begin to describe how good “Mean Joe" was in leading the Steelers to their postseason win and first championship (AFC Central Division) of any kind.
- Jack Lambert (1976): Lambert benefitted from the front four to win Defensive Rookie of the Year in 1974 and by 1976 had established himself as the best MLB in the NFL. The 1976 Steelers defense was so good that it carried an offense besieged by injuries to the AFC Championship Game by pitching 5 shutouts and allowed only 28 points through the final 9 games of the season. Lambert led the NFL with 8 fumbles recovered, adding 3.5 sacks and 2 INTs as he not only won Defensive Player of the Year honors with a landslide 50% of the vote, but finished 2nd in the MVP voting.
- T.J. Watt (2021): Watt played in only 15 games and missed half of 3 others due to injury, but it barely slowed him down as he carried a Steelers team to the playoffs. Watt has steadily become the best defensive player in the NFL and lost the 2020 DPOY vote by 7 votes despite outperforming eventual winner in every category. In 2021, he left no room for even the most ardent of anti-Steelers bias as he tied the NFL single-season sack record with 22.5 and led the league in TFL with 21, the second year in a row he led the NFL in both categories. The Steelers finished 9-2 in games in which Watt played at least 60% of the snaps. One could only wonder how good the defense would have been if it was fully healthy all year.
- James Harrison (2008): Harrison was a beast on the best defense of the millennium, playing against the hardest schedule in the league and breaking the Steelers single-season sack record (16) that stood for 24 years. Harrison led the league with 7 FF, adding a safety, INT and a FR on a defense that nearly had a perfect #1 finish sweep: 1st in sacks, passing defense, total defense, scoring defense and 2nd in rush defense. The 2008 Steelers would win Super Bowl XLIII in large part to his 100-yard INT return, but he was so good in the regular season, he finished 4th in the MVP vote.
- Mel Blount (1975): Blount broke out with the best season of his career and arguably the best season of any Steelers defensive back ever. Blount led the league and set the franchise record with 11 interceptions on the season. Blount was the overwhelming winner and from 1975 forward, had no match at the CB position.
- Rod Woodson (1993): Woodson was already a perennial All-Pro and Pro Bowl selection, but 1993 was his first time receiving overdue DPOY consideration. Woodson was arguably 2nd only to Joe Greene in terms of best player in franchise history and he was the catalyst behind the team’s success of the 1990s. He was 2nd in the league with 8 interceptions, including one pick-6, 2 FF and 1 FR. Woodson was arguably even better in 1994, where he finished 2nd in the vote to Deion Sanders but had 19 votes dispersed to teammates Greg Lloyd and Kevin Greene.
- Troy Polamalu (2010): The most bittersweet entry on this list, Polamalu was overdue in attaining this recognition. Polamalu arguably clinched the award with a pick-6 vs. the Cincinnati Bengals but suffered an injury to his Achilles that prevented him from having the same impact in the postseason. Polamalu made a game-changing play that secured at least 5 wins for the Steelers that year and one could only wonder if not for that Achilles injury, he might have made the game differentiator in Super Bowl XLV.
- Joe Greene (1974): No player on the Steelers had a larger presence and his influence was enough to convince the coaches to allow him to adopt a technique called the “Stunt 43”, where Greene would tilt his body to jump the gap between the guard and center. It created such havoc that opposing offenses were forced to dedicate double and triple teams on Greene and the left the rest of the Steel Curtain free to reign chaos, finishing with the #1 defense in the league and 52 sacks. Despite facing multiple blockers, Greene had 9 sacks (unofficially) along with one FF and one INT as offenses simply had no way of containing the DT. While his biggest impact on the year was making his team better more than his own dominance, it paid off with a win in Super Bowl IX.
Do you agree? How would you rate T.J. Watt's 2021 campaign vs. the Steelers all-time greats? Leave a comment below.
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