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ProFootballFocus names JJ Watt "Best Player" and DPOY for 2014

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2014 Dwight Stephenson Award
Sam Monson | January 7, 2015

In case you hadn’t noticed, PFF isn’t awarding an MVP this season. In most sports the most valuable player is inherently also the best player. In football the most valuable players are all quarterbacks, such has been the development of the game. The 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.

Instead of handing an award to a quarterback or running back when other players at less glamorous positions enjoyed far superior seasons, we decided to simply recognize the best overall performance of the NFL season each year – the best player in football – and bestow the Dwight Stephenson Award to that player.

The award is named after a player who pre-dates Pro Football Focus but does not pre-date the site’s ethos. Dwight Stephenson played only eight NFL seasons for the Miami Dolphins, but was a five-time All-Pro and was selected to the All-Decade team of the 1980s. More importantly, you only need to throw on a couple of minutes of tape to see that he was something special.

This award comes with no positional bias whatsoever. A guard has every bit as much chance to win it as a cornerback, pass-rusher, quarterback or any other position. All they need to do is dominate and perform during the regular season.

Let’s take a look at the candidates this year.

4th Runner Up

Marshal Yanda, G, Baltimore Ravens

Evan Mathis missed half the season with an injury, leaving a void at the top of the guard rankings and the feeling that we wouldn’t be seeing...

3rd Runner Up

Chris Harris, CB, Denver Broncos

If I told you before the season that a cornerback was going to post a...

2nd Runner Up

Justin Houston, OLB, Kansas City Chiefs

You won’t find a guy notch over twenty sacks more quietly...

1st Runner Up

Aaron Rodgers, QB, Green Bay Packers

The man who would most likely win any conventional MVP award by virtue of being a quarterback, Rodgers can’t manage better than a runner up spot in the Stephenson Award this year...

2014 Stephenson Award Winner

J.J. Watt, DE, Houston Texans

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.
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2014 PFF Defensive Player of the Year
Steve Palazzolo | January 7, 2015
Despite the outcome of the Defensive Player of the Year Award seeming like a formality, there were a number of top-notch defensive performances throughout the league in 2014. At PFF, we’ve watched every snap multiple times to look beyond the traditional statistics and perhaps dig a little deeper into widespread perceptions.

This group of finalists is not an unfamiliar bunch to PFF regulars, but a few of them took their respective games to a new level in 2014. Last year’s award was a bit closer at the top, but this year featured an almost-interchangeable No. 2 through No. 5, so the decisions weren’t easy when we mulled them over at PFF headquarters.

As always, it’s important to note, we’re not just listing our top-graded defensive players and calling it a day. A lot of thought and analysis went into creating this list as not all position groups are graded on the same scale and not all players bear the same responsibility within their respective schemes. That said, here are your Top 5 defensive players for 2014:

4th Runner Up

Luke Kuechly, MLB, Carolina Panthers

Last year’s NFL Defensive Player of the Year. We took some heat for not putting him in the mix...

3rd Runner Up

Von Miller, OLB, Denver Broncos

Since coming into the league in 2011, Miller has been one of the best...

2nd Runner Up

Chris Harris, CB, Denver Broncos

One of the players to take the next step this seasons, Harris may finally getting the due he’s deserved...

1st Runner Up

Justin Houston, OLB, Kansas City Chiefs

It’s unfortunate that a season like Houston’s almost fell under the radar, but being the best non-Watt is nothing to sniff at. Like Harris, Houston went from ...

Defensive Player of the Year

JJ Watt, DE, Houston Texans

Not much of a drum roll for this one. For the third straight year, Watt earns PFF Defensive Player of the Year. We’ve touted his jaw-dropping grades and statistics for a while now, but he continues to break the scale, despite opposing offenses doing their best to account for him on every snap.

Watt’s +107.5 overall grade is the first to crack triple digits in the PFF era and while it’s not always fair to compare across positions, it may be best to compare him to the next best grade at his position… Jets DE Sheldon Richardson and his +39.9.

As much as I touted Miller and Houston for their consistency and ability to take over a game, Watt takes that to an entirely new level with record-setting games of +15.0 in Week 4 and +16.2 in Week 16. His +91.9 pass rush grade looks like a misprint and his pass rushing totals look like that of an entire team as he notched 21 sacks, 44 QB hits, and 54 hurries while adding 10 batted passes, a skill for which he’s become famous.

It’s almost embarrassing to look back and think that we had some concerns that new defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel would change his role and perhaps make him play more stout against the run rather than using his athleticism. Instead, the opposite is true as Watt moved around and was deployed as an edge rusher more than ever, making tackles pay all season long.

While pass rushing gets the accolades, he’s also one of the league’s best run defenders, making plays up and down the line and often shedding blocks by the time the running back is receiving the handoff at the mesh point. His +17.8 run grade ranked fourth among 3-4 defensive ends, as did his Run Stop Percentage of 10.6%.

It’s one thing to look at the sack total and immediately assume a player had a good season, but it’s Watt’s every-down effect that makes him special. No matter how many blockers are being deployed his way, he still finds a way to post off-the-charts production in a manner that we’ve certainly never seen during the PFF era and perhaps haven’t seen in a generation. Moreso than even the sack totals or the touchdowns that Watt added to his resume this season, that every-down effect is the true catalyst behind his MVP candidacy and one look at PFF grades gives a great visual of why he’s even in the conversation this season.
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But (choose one):

A) he is not a QB!
B) Swap him and Godgers, whose team improves?
C) Half his sacks came vs the Titans and Jags!
D) Im an idiot
 
DX-TEX said:
But (choose one):

A) he is not a QB!
B) Swap him and Godgers, whose team improves?
C) Half his sacks came vs the Titans and Jags!
D) Im an idiot
Click to expand...


As to the bolded, it's basically irrelevant. Virtually every division has at least one crappy team that a player can rack up stats against twice a year.
For example, Aaron Rodgers threw over 1/4 of his TDs (26.3%) against the Bears. Out of 38 TDs for the season, 10 of them came against a single team.
 
DX-TEX said:
But (choose one):
A) he is not a QB!
B) Swap him and Godgers, whose team improves?
C) Half his sacks came vs the Titans and Jags!
D) Im an idiot
Click to expand...

smiley-raising-waving-hand.gif
 
And the nfl needs to follow suite. MVP needs to be changed to MDP. Most dominating player. If not then its a stupid award and a wage of time.
 
DX-TEX said:
But (choose one):

A) he is not a QB!
B) Swap him and Godgers, whose team improves?
C) Half his sacks came vs the Titans and Jags!
D) I'm an idiot
Click to expand...

E) QBs 20 years ago threw fewer passes, on average, than QBs today, most offenses were more run-heavy, sack numbers relative to the number of pass attempts by the opposing QBs ("sacks per pass rush attempt") were higher, it's not surprising we're seeing more pass rushers approach 20 sacks today since offenses are giving them more "opportunities" to sack QBs because of pass-heavy playcalling by offenses.

oh, and D of course
 
DX-TEX said:
But (choose one):

A) he is not a QB!
B) Swap him and Godgers, whose team improves?
C) Half his sacks came vs the Titans and Jags!
D) Im an idiot
Click to expand...

swap rogers with brady, brees, manning and tell me how the packers go...
ill tell you, exactly the same.

rogers isnt the most valuable player because there are others at his position that do the same.
you can substitute watt with anyone in the league and they wont put up the numbers that watt has no have the same impact.
watt is the most dominate and most valuable player.
 
DX-TEX said:
But (choose one):

A) he is not a QB!
B) Swap him and Godgers, whose team improves?
C) Half his sacks came vs the Titans and Jags!
D) Im an idiot
Click to expand...

This is the most voiced and dumbest argument for picking a QB for MVP I hear. By this line of thinking, Tom Brady should never have won an MVP after he went down in 2008 and the team went 11-5 without him. He was "swapped" for Matt Cassell for goodness sake and the team won 11 games!

I've also seen Matt Flynn play very well in Green Bay when Rodgers was injured.

That argument is the most widely used and also the laziest.
 
These guys get it.

Sam Monson @PFF_Sam
This logic is why the award is stupid. RT @cochise269: Seriously? You cant be MVP of the league if your team is mediocre.

Dungy should have to justify his vote for Wagner before he is allowed to vote for MVP again. That's just silly.

It saddens me that anybody would use team record to overlook JJ Watt for MVP. Just a lazy, ignorant crutch for the way you want to vote.
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[Quote:
Originally Posted by DX-TEX View Post
But (choose one):

A) he is not a QB!
B) Swap him and Godgers, whose team improves?
C) Half his sacks came vs the Titans and Jags!
D) Im an idiot
TheCD said:
]

This is the most voiced and dumbest argument for picking a QB for MVP I hear. By this line of thinking, Tom Brady should never have won an MVP after he went down in 2008 and the team went 11-5 without him. He was "swapped" for Matt Cassell for goodness sake and the team won 11 games!

I've also seen Matt Flynn play very well in Green Bay when Rodgers was injured.

That argument is the most widely used and also the laziest.
Click to expand...

I agree. But I was taught this was not an argument because arguments have merit. This is an EXCUSE for being D.
 
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