The Denver Broncos have not had a player win the defensive player of the year since Hall of Famer, Randy Gradishar, did it in 1978. Von Miller should have won it in 2016 when the league decided that Khalil Mack somehow had a better season (he didn’t). Nik Bonitto has a chance to win the DPOY this season.
He’s currently tied for 3rd in sacks with 11.5 (tied with former DPOY TJ Watt). He’s the only player with a pick 6 AND a fumble recovery TD. Tied for 7th in TFL with 14. Tied for 12th in QBhits with 20.
Bonitto is also only the fourth player over the last 30 NFL seasons to have at least 11.5 sacks and two defensive TDs. According to Gameday, two of the previous four won the NFL DPOY with only HoFer DeMarcus Ware in 2006 not getting it. However, they are wrong. Jason Taylor did not win DPOY in 2007, Bob Sanders did. Taylor won DPOY of the year in 2006.
Is @nikkkkbonitto a darkhorse DPOY candidate? #BroncosCountry pic.twitter.com/jtCZdMALmB
— NFL GameDay (@NFLGameDay) December 16, 2024
Demarcus Ware never won DPOY, despite leading the league in sacks twice, in 2008 and 2010. This brings us to another topic that I want to discuss. The DPOY award for the NFL has been around since 1971 when Alan Page won the first award. Only eleven times has the NFL sack leader won the award, but five of those eleven have been in the past twelve seasons.
Those were:
- Nick Bosa in 2022
- TJ Watt in 2021
- Aaron Donald in 2018
- JJ Watt in 2015 and 2012
Those guys had 18.5, 22.5, 20.5, 17.5 and 20.5 sacks. I don’t see any player getting 17.5 or more this season. The current sack leader, Trey Hendrickson, only has 12.5 with three games left to play. It’s possible that one edge guy will have a three or four sack game to leap over the logjam on the sack leader board, but there haven’t been many three or more sack games this season. There have only been fifteen instances of a player getting three or more sacks this season. The most the season was Aidan Hutchinson who had 4.5 against the Bucs. The only player with 4.0 sacks this season in a game was current sack leader, Hendrickson, who had four against the Faiders last month.
So let’s look at the eight players in the past thirteen seasons who have who the DPOY without leading the league in sacks. Garrett had 37 pressures according to PFR.
2023 | DE | Myles Garrett | Cleveland Browns |
2020 | DT | Aaron Donald | Los Angeles Rams |
2019 | CB | Stephon Gilmore | New England Patriots |
2017 | DT | Aaron Donald | Los Angeles Rams |
2016 | OLB | Khalil Mack | Oakland Raiders |
2014 | DE | J.J. Watt | Houston Texans |
2013 | ILB | Luke Kuechly | Carolina Panthers |
Garrett only had 14.0 sacks last season, but he forced four fumbles, had 17 TFL and 30 QBhits in 16 games for a downtrodden Browns team that went 11-6 and made the playoffs.
Aaron Donald in 2020 only had 13.5 sacks, but he had four forced fumbles, 14 TFL and 28 QBhits. Donald also had 45 pressures that season.
Stephen Gilmore was not an edge defender. So we really can’t compare him to the edge guys (and IDL guy) who won the DPOY recently. Aaron Donald was a generational player. An IDL guy like that only comes along once every twenty or so years.
When Aaron Donald when DPOY in 2017 he only had 11.0 sacks, but he forced five fumbles and had 27 QBhits. PFR doesn’t have pressures that far back, but SIS does. SIS is much more generous with pressures than PFR, but SIS shows that Aaron had 73 pressures in 2017.
Khalil Mack won the award in 2016 (and should not have). Mack only had 11.0 sacks that season. Admittedly, the league leader that season, Vic Beasely only had 15.5 sacks. Mack had a pick six, five forced fumbles, 14 TFL and 26 QBhits. For comparison, Von had 13.5 sacks that season, three forced fumbles, 13 TFL and 24 QBhits. Von came in second in the voting for DPOY in 2016. According to SIS, Mack had 67 pressures while Von had 57. One thing that helped Mack that season was the the Faiders had a rare winning season that year, going 12-4 while the Broncos were actually having their last winning season before this year, finishing 9-7 that season, but missing the playoffs.
JJ Watt in 2014 had 20.5 sacks, a pick 6, a fumble return TD, four forced fumbles, 19 TFL and 51 QBhits. Watt also recovered five fumbles that season. Houston led the league in sacks with 22.0, but he had fewer than Watt in every other stat and he had less than half the QBhits (25).
Luke Kuechly was an ILB, so we are not going to compare him.
Bonitto currently has two forced fumbles and 20 QBhits. He is only credited with 31 pressures. In terms of QB hurries his 10 is tied for 12th. Chris Jones and Carl Granderson lead the league with 16. His 9 QB knockdowns is tied for 21st. Zach Allen leads the league with 19. Hendrickson leads the league in pressures with 40. TJ Watt and Bonitto are tied for 9th with 31. Zach Allen is currently 5th with 32.
Nik really needs to have a big game in the next three games particularly against he Chargers and the Bengals since the Chiefs may not be playing their starters in the final game of the season against the Broncos so any stats he gets during that game, could be discounted.
Poll
Who do you think will win the DPOY in the NFL this season?
This poll is closed
-
43%
Nik Bonitto
-
5%
Trey Hendrickson
-
25%
TJ Watt
-
0%
Danielle Hunter
-
24%
some player who isn’t an edge defender
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