The defensive player of the year is becoming a more and more outmoded award in the NFL as the Defense gets less and less chances to stop teams from scoring. You might not have thought of it this way if you enjoy all the scoring in the league, but there is a gap in defensive play that only leaves a few great players in the running for this award. I would pick from one of just a select few, and it makes more sense for us to narrow down the list to the guys who are likely going to be great every week.

Aaron Donald

We can put Donald down for every defensive award every year until he retires the way he is playing.

He is probably the best defensive player in the league, and he can continue to play like that for a long time because he does not play a high impact position. It makes sense to leave him on your ballot becuse he could end up being the MVP of the Rams if his defense bails out their offense a few times this year.

JJ Watt

Jj Watt will always be on this list, and his brother TJ could be on this list because of his play in Pittsburgh. We do not know yet which of them will turn out to be the better player overall, but you can make the Case that TJ Watt is the highest impact player on the Steelers right now. That would put him in line for this award, and it would make him a favorite to win it every year.

Richard Sherman

You could point out any number of guys who are on the Seahawks right now and say that they should win this award, but Sherman is the leader of the pack. The Seattle defense does not go anywhere without him, and he could be help up as the leader of that entire team. We give Russell Wilson a ton of credit, but Sherman might be just as much a part of their success from a defensive captaincy perspective.

Can you live without defense?

You can live without a decent defense, but you have to have one playmaker on your team. Remember when Bob Sanders and Dwight Freeney were the only two good defensive players for the Colts? They won a Super Bowl like that, and it could happen for other teams in the league.

Teams are going to score whether you want them to or not, and that is why it might make more sense to invest in the offense.

The Giants tried to fix their defense, and now they cannot win because they cannot score. That does not make the award obsolete, but it does mean that playing defense is not as important as it used to be. The defenses on many teams are pretty good, but the teams stink because they cannot score. That is why we have to talk about the offenses so much.
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