Defensive Player of the Year J.J. Watt, DE, Houston Texans The Defensive Player of the Year award last season was a close run race between J.J. Watt, Von Miller and Geno Atkins. The numbers suggested it was Watt in a landslide, but all three put together absolutely ridiculous seasons and Watt was just a hair in front of the competition. He had the gaudy statistics – the sacks, the batted passes – but it was a closer race than most people thought. When you look beyond the blunt tool of raw numbers, his performance play-by-play wasn’t in a league of its own when compared to the other two. This year the same principle is true but in reverse. Watt this season doesn’t have the gaudy numbers. He only sacked the quarterback 11 times, he only has 6 batted passes, but in play-by-play grading terms his season has actually been better than a year ago. As good as the seasons have been by everybody else in the NFL, J.J. Watt has been just a little bit better, even if this time the statistics don’t back it up. He has been a one-man wrecking crew inside on that Houston D-line and moves around throughout games to make it extremely difficult for offenses to focus in on shutting him down. The Texans have used him outside in a four-man line more this season and he has dominated there as well, proving too quick and powerful for tackles as well as guards. Last year Watt broke the PFF grading system with a season total of +101.6, but this year that total finished up at +111.6, a full 10 grading points better. As bad as the Texans have been at times, they would be a whole lot worse without Watt. Their defense is stacked with players who have had a season’s worth of clean up tackles on plays that Watt has destroyed in the backfield. Sadly for Houston one man cannot make a defense, and as dominant he has been it simply hasn’t mattered at times. If an offense wants to badly enough they can just run away from a player all day long. The Rams handed Watt his poorest grade of the season (a still better than average +0.2) by doing exactly that. They ran away from where he lined up, they double teamed him at times, and when they didn’t they made sure that they were passing too quickly for him to get to the quarterback. The point, though, is that in order to contain J.J. Watt you need to completely change your offense. He affects games like no other defender. Right now Watt is the best defender in football, and the best player period in the NFL. He deserves his second consecutive Defensive Player of the Year award and it’s a testament to the seasons of others that it’s not a slam-dunk selection. https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2014/01/07/2013-pff-defensive-player-of-the-year/
JJ Watt is the man other NFL players should look up to. That's about as high a compliment as I can pay him, keep doing what you do young man.
not gonna be much debate in this thread. anyone who doesn't LOVE jj shouldn't be allowed 'round these parts.
He probably won't win it, but he should. He is an absolute monster. Routinely faced double and triple teams, and still made plays.
Don't think it is worth a new thread, but Watt also won PFF's Dwight Stephenson award, which means he is the "best" player in football; however, not the most "valuable". https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2014/01/09/2013-dwight-stephenson-award/ Thanks, I must have just missed it in the article. My eyes are failing me
I believe he will do better. Romeo will find a BIG BOY to put on the line with him. I think that will help J.J. out a lot compared to the smaller DTs Wade likes to use. With those small DTs, it makes it easier for the offensive line to focus on J.J.
