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The NFL season is one-third of the way over, and the leaders in awards are starting to separate from the pack as the chaos of the first few weeks of the season has subsided. The NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year (DPOY) race is heavily favored to T.J. Watt, the epitome of unwavering consistency.
Even though the season is still early and a lot may change, if T.J. Watt keeps playing at his level and picks up some new skills, it should be decided unanimously before the end of the season.
Something that shows just how dominant T.J. is as a player, is the knowledge that teams spend all week game-planning how to stop and slow him down: but it still doesn’t work.
A show of true dominance is when the other team focuses that much energy on stopping one player but that player can still be the best at their position.
It’s not a fluke when the production continues game after game and season after season. T.J. Watts’s relentless pursuit of being better than he was the game before is why teams are still unable to figure out how to stop him.
Watt has finished inside the top 3 in DPOY voting in 4 of the past 5 seasons, including winning the award for the first time in 2021. The only season he didn’t finish in the top 3 in DPOY voting was an injury-shortened 2022.
He has been one of the most consistent and dominant players in the league over the past 5 seasons and looks to have stepped his game up for the 2024 season.
While Watt’s 4.5 sacks have him in eleventh place behind league leader Aidan Hutchinson’s 7.5. Unfortunately, Hutchinson suffered a season-ending injury on Sunday and won’t be able to add to his tally, leaving the Giants’ Dexter Lawrence as the next active player ahead of Watt with 7.0 sacks. Four other players are tied with 5.0 sacks, so it’s safe to assume T.J. will close the gap on those players soon.
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