Browns DE Myles Garrett beats out T.J. Watt for NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award
After a full season of debate, Cleveland Browns defensive end and five-time Pro Bowler Myles Garrett has been named NFL Defensive Player of the Year of T.J. Watt of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Despite only racking up one sack down the stretch of the season, Garrett led the NFL in pressures and pass rush win rate, and was PFF’s highest-graded pass rusher all while seeing the most double teams in the NFL. NFL voters care about more than just the box score and see when a player impacts the game, which Garrett did prevalently for the Browns despite the lack of sacks.
Garrett finished the season with 14 sacks, a pass rush win rate of 27.4 percent, and 89 total pressures on over 100 fewer pass rush snaps than the likes of Maxx Crosby of the Las Vegas Raiders and Aidan Hutchinson of the Detroit Lions.
This is the first NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award for the five-time Pro Bowler, and hopefully not the last as the Browns look to continue their dominance on the defensive side of the ball for the foreseeable future.
