Thursday night the NFL Thhanded out their annual award at the NFL Honors. The only Pittsburgh Steelers who was in the running for any of the end-of-season awards was edge defender T.J. Watt. He was a finalist for Defensive Player of the Years but the odds were against him.
Denver Broncos cornerback Patrick Surtain II won the award and rightfully so. Surtain was far and away the best cornerback in the NFL. Watt ended up finishing fourth behind Surtain, Bengals EDGE Trey Hendrickson and Browns EDGE Myles Garrett. Watt did get three first-place votes.
Here’s how the voting broke down for the top four.
Patrick Surtain II 26-11-2-4-1: 330
Trey Hendrickson 11-10-9-8-2: 205
Myles Garrett 5-11-12-8-5: 162
T.J. Watt 3-7-8-11-3: 114
Watt finished 2024 with 11.5 sacks. This was his worst season since his rookie year if you exclude 2022 where he missed six games with injury. Watt failed to put up any stats in the team’s final two games which was completely out of character for him and really hurt the final numbers.
The reality is Watt’s teammate, defensive tackle Cam Heyward was a far more deserving candidate after racking up eight sacks and 11 passes defended as a defensive tackle.
