I’ve run out of words to describe what kind of player JJ Watt is on Sundays, but the accolades for his accomplishments continue to roll in. Pro Football Focus recently tabbed Watt has the NFL’s best player for 2014 and they put in to perspective how dominant he was this year.
While the MVP debate continues, three-time All-Pro J.J. Watt has garnered another distinction – best player in the NFL, according to ProFootballFocus.com.
Because it doesn’t agree with the premise of a Most Valuable Player, the statistics-driven sports website instead awarded Watt its esteemed Dwight Stephenson Award.
“The (MVP) award has lost all meaning. It has become a quarterback only award that an occasional running back can squeeze his way into if his quarterback is bad enough. The best players, though, can play in any position,” PFF analyst Sam Monson wrote.
PFF grades players with its own set of metrics to determine the best performances across the league. The Dwight Stephenson Award, named after the Miami Dolphins Hall of Fame offensive lineman, opens up the competition to all players and grades them on a more level playing field and without any positional biases.
Receiving the site’s first triple-digit grade – an astonishing 107.5 on a scale that begins at zero- Watt blew past his competitors and is Pro Football Focus’s winner for the third-consecutive year.
The guys over at Pro Football Focus went on to list four runner ups for the award including Aaron Rodgers and Justin Houston, but according to the numbers it wasn’t even close.
When all is said and done the Dwight Stephenson Award may end up being renamed in J.J. Watt’s honor. This is the award’s third season in existence and the third straight year it has been won by Watt. If anything, this season was even more convincing a victory than each of the past two.
It’s beginning to get difficult to explain just how much better than his peers Watt is. Zero is designed to be the ‘average’ PFF grade. There were 20 3-4 DEs with a grade lower than zero this season. Only 27, including Watt, graded above zero. The second-best of those was Sheldon Richardson with a +39.9 grade, nine sacks, 54 total pressures and 32 defensive stops. Watt posted an insane +107.5 grade, 21 sacks, 119 total pressures and 61 defensive stops. He also had 10 batted passes, four forced fumbles, an interception, a defensive touchdown, a safety… oh, and he scored three receiving touchdowns moonlighting as a tight end in goal-line packages.
Watt is so far out on his own in terms of play that he breaks every graph we create to try and illustrate it, extending axes and generally sitting off on a data point all to himself. He is completely redefining what we thought a defensive player was capable of, and is only getting better.
This season Watt moved around more than ever before, becoming a true edge-rusher more than an interior presence. His highlight reel is mind-blowing, and reminds you of watching NFL players when they were back in high school – he is just bigger, faster or stronger than everybody that is being tasked with stopping him, often all three at once.
We are truly privileged to be watching one of the best players to ever lace up cleats in action.
J.J. Watt is the now three-time winner of the Dwight Stephenson Award. He is the best player in football, period.
I’ve been banging the table for a few weeks now in favor of Watt winning the MVP. I know giving the NFL MVP to a defensive player isn’t a popular opinion, but to me Watt’s resume speaks for itself. What Watt accomplished year as a defensive player and part time offensive player is much rarer in my eyes than any of things that the other candidates accomplished. Watt is difference maker on his team and all you have to do is look at how he almost led a team who started four different quarterbacks this year and was coming off a two win season. If JJ Watt doesn’t win the award this year, than we need to just rename the MVP to MVOP, Most Valuable Offensive Player because that’s exactly what it will be to me.