T.J. Watt has spoken out about being passed over for his second Defensive Player of the Year award.
The 2021 DPOY spoke with the “Pardon My Take” podcast.
“I don't have a problem with any players," Watt said. Everybody's phenomenal. Myles [Garrett], Micah [Parsons], they're great players. Don't get me wrong. It's just that the voting. I want more clarity on how it all comes about I don’t want any of it to come across as whining or complaining it’s just the matter of fact you work so hard and when you’re not able to come away from a season with a Super Bowl you like to fall back on something.”
Watt adds not getting the award is just additional motivation moving forward, but said awards like DPOY add to a player’s “legacy”.
The first time ever, the award started in 1971, a Browns player was honored as a player of the year. In comparing Garrett and Watt, here are the categories where Watt had better stats than Garrett:
• Sacks-Watt had 5 more
• Tackles for Loss-Watt had 2 more
• Tackles-Watt had 26 more
• QB hits-Watt had 6 more
• Passes Defended-Watt had 5 more
• Interceptions-Watt had one
Watt skipped the NFL Awards a couple days before the Super Bowl and send a message out on social media that said, “Nothing I’m not used to.”