By Jordan Long
The NFL announced winners for their awards this past season. The winner for Defensive Player of The Year went to Myles Garrett. Garrett became the first Cleveland Browns’ player to take home the hardware. Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker T.J. Watt feels he should have won it over Garrett.
Garrett played in 16 out of 17 games for Cleveland this past year. The only game he didn’t appear in was week 18 when Cleveland faced Cincinnati. Cleveland had already clinched a playoff spot and couldn’t improve their seeding.
In those appearances for the Browns, Garrett was the top defensive player for the Browns. Quarterbacks needed to know where he was lined up. He was great at putting pressure on the quarterbacks and sacking them. Garret totaled 30 quarterback hits and 14 sacks. Garrett also totaled 42 tackles with 17 for a loss.
Watt feels he was snubbed. Watt was in the conversation and even had superior stats. He played more games than Garrett at 17 games. Watt even had more sacks at 19. Watt was better at putting pressure on the quarterbacks with 36 quarterback hits. When it came to tackling an opponent, Watt had 68 with 19 of them were for a loss. Again, higher than Garrett.
According to CBS.com, while Garrett was giving his acceptance speech, Watt went on to the platform formally known as Twitter and said, “Nothing I’m not used to.”
Watt knows he should have won Defensive Player of The Year. Watt showed he was the leader of the Steelers’ defense. His body of work shows he deserves it. It doesn’t make any sense why Garrett won the award. In the end, there is always next year for Watt. He may not have the same numbers, but this might give him motivation to play at an even higher level. That could be scary for any team who has to play the Steelers.
Leave a Reply