Pittsburgh Steelers star TJ Watt lost the NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award to Cleveland Browns pass rusher Myles Garrett. Just ahead of the announcement of the award at the NFL Honors event, Watt took to social media and wrote just five words that show how he thinks he should have been the DPOY.
“Nothing I’m not used to.” Watt tweeted on Thursday night.
Watt has arguably been the best defensive player in the NFL for four of the last five seasons, yet he’s only won Defensive Player of the Year once, after the 2021 campaign, when he tied Michael Strahan’s single-season sack record of 22.5.
This season, the numbers between Watt and Garrett were incredibly close, but with the Steelers star leading the league in sacks and having the edge in every major statistical category. Here’s the tale of the tape:
- TJ Watt: 17 games, 68 tackles, 19 tackles for a loss, 19.0 sacks, 36 QB hits, four forced fumbles, three fumble recoveries, eight passes defended, one interception, and a defensive touchdown.
- Myles Garrett: 16 games, 42 tackles, 17 tackles for a loss, 14.0 sacks, 30 QB hits, four forced fumbles, one fumble recovery, three passes defended, no interceptions, and no defensive touchdowns.
Now, the main arguments for Garrett are that his team finished with one more win in the standings, and offenses had to gameplan for the Browns’ disruptive edge-rusher in a way they didn’t for Watt.
That said, that’s a tough needle to thread between one player with clearly better stats than the other. Watt has now finished third, second, first, (only played 10 games in 2022 due to injury), and second in DPOY voting at the NFL Honors show.
Unfortunately for Watt, he probably deserved it at least two of those years, including this one, but he’s going to have to get used to the voters voting for the trendier candidate.
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