J.J. Watt for NFL MVP? Texans' star is battling history
Twenty seven NFL MVP awards have been handed out since Lawrence Taylor collected his trophy in 1986 after his transcendent season as a pass-rushing star for the New York Giants.
None of those trophies have gone to a defensive player.
But this season, Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt is making the most serious case in years to end the drought.
Though Watt routinely shuns the chance to campaign for himself, he's got players like Taylor offering their endorsement.
"I really like the way the kid plays," Taylor told USA TODAY Sports in an email. "Honest effort on every snap, tremendous size, strength and athleticism. We play two different positions, and he is bigger than I was, but the common similarity is the relentless mindset. I never gave up on a play. The kid plays the same way."
Watt is in the midst of one of the most dominant seasons for a defensive player in years – with 16.5 sacks, a half-sack shy of the league lead; along with 10 pass breakups, three forced fumbles and 64 total tackles.
And then there are his touchdowns – five of them, three as an offensive player, along with an 80-yard interception return, and one fumble return score. He is the first defensive lineman to score five touchdowns in a season, giving the Texans value that no other defensive player in the league can provide.
He is doing it all in a season in which even the best of quarterbacks have faltered (see Aaron Rodgers' two-interception performance on Sunday in a Green Bay Packers' loss to Buffalo), and there isn't a running back likely to reach the 2,000-yard benchmark.
"What J.J. is doing is remarkable and he should be considered for MVP. Not defensive MVP, but MVP. He's had that kind of year," former Buffalo Bills defensive end Bruce Smith told USA TODAY Sports. "The only setback is that his team isn't doing extremely well. If they were performing well offensively, it would be hands down for me that he should win both MVP and defensive MVP."
But Smith, a two-time defensive MVP during his Hall of Fame career in Buffalo, doesn't seem convinced a defensive player can be the league's overall MVP, because of history, and of what Smith believes are institutionalized biases against defensive players.
Generations of defensive players haven't been able to join Taylor and Minnesota Vikings defensive tackle Alan Page (1971) as the only defensive players since the NFL merger in 1970 to be named MVP. Reggie White never did it. Neither did Ray Lewis nor Derrick Brooks, Deion Sanders, or any of the greatest defensive players in the 1990s and 2000s.
Getting the vote
When Watt had his breakout season in 2012, with 20.5 sacks, 16 passes defensed and four forced fumbles, he barely received a mention in the debate between Vikings running back Adrian Peterson and Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning.
With a voting procedure in which 50 voters, a collection of print, online and broadcast media members, cast just one vote, it is rare that defensive players even get a vote. None have since Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker James Harrison picked up three votes in 2008, when he was arguably the Steelers' best defensive player on their Super Bowl champion team.
It's a process that irked San Diego Chargers outside linebacker Dwight Freeney, a 13-year veteran and former AFC defensive player of the year.
"I could talk about this for an hour!" Freeney said, his voice rising as he leaned back onto a couch in the Chargers' locker room last week.
Freeney took a breath, and continued.
"Let me tell you why. It's because the NFL wants to put their focus on the quarterback. Right off the bat, a defensive player trying to win an MVP award — it's almost impossible," Freeney said. "I guess for defensive players who aspire to being the MVP, you just know it's going to an offensive player. Why is it like that? Why?"
Indeed, in the years since Taylor won the 1986 MVP, 20 times the winner was a quarterback. The other seven winners were running backs, including Barry Sanders, Emmitt Smith, and Peterson – the most recent non-quarterback winner in 2012.
Breaking the trend
It's hardly a diverse swath of NFL positions.
"Why should you, if you're an offensive lineman, or a defensive lineman, or a guy who doesn't catch touchdowns all of a sudden be discredited? You can have a huge impact on the game, just as much as a quarterback or another offensive position, it's just that it's so offensive slanted," Freeney said.
So if the race this year is down to Rodgers, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and Watt, Watt would need to be able to make the case that he can affect every defensive snap to the degree that Rodgers and Brady control their offenses. That is something that is hard to quantify, though, opposing offenses certainly have to account for Watt, who has played 92 % of the Texans defensive snaps.
"You have to start your offensive game plan on how you're going to handle him," former NFL head coach Dick Vermeil, who coached MVPs – quarterback Kurt Warner, and running back Marshall Faulk, with the St. Louis Rams – told USA TODAY Sports. "He is a fine player. I have watched him play in person -- you know, he's impressive."
Vermeil had an up-close look at the last defensive MVP season, as coach of the Philadelphia Eagles when Taylor had the best statistical season of his Hall of Fame career in 1986, with 20.5 sacks, 105 total tackles, five pass breakups and two forced fumbles for the eventual Super Bowl champions.
"There was nothing he didn't do well. He was a physically dominating player," Vermeil said. "Guys like him were new at that position. You tried your old methods to block him, and it didn't work. You had to play him for a while, and see other people play him for a while, to see how to finally at least slow him down."
Ten players received MVP votes in 1986, with Taylor beating Rams running back Eric Dickerson, who rushed for 1,821 yards that year, by 24 votes. Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino, who threw for 4,746 yards and 44 touchdowns for an 8-8 team that missed the playoffs, finished third.
It served as perhaps the ideal scenario for a defensive player to win, with a combination of the Giants winning 14 games in the regular season, and Taylor playing on a massive stage in New York – along with the absence of a dominant or historic season from an offensive player.
"And John Madden loved him to death, and rightfully so," Smith said, laughing. "L.T. was the most dominant player that particular year, and there was no hiding that. I think all of those factors came into play. It was just an unprecedented year."
Watt's current season might not be unprecedented, especially with his 2012 20.5-sack season, but doing it as an end in a 3-4 defense, while also becoming an offensive weapon has both Taylor and Smith convinced that Watt is deserving of a major honor.
"J.J. reminds me of Michael Strahan, stopping the run or rushing the passer, equally as strong," Taylor said. "I took a lot of pride in my ability to do both. The truly great defensive lineman distinguish themselves that way."
Campaigning on the field
Just don't ask Watt to boast much about his ability, especially after a game like Sunday, when the Texans watched the Colts clinch the AFC South title. The Texans remain in the wild-card hunt at 7-7, but barely.
"Individual stuff doesn't really mean a whole lot when you lose a game like this," Watt told reporters after his two-sack day. "You guys can write about it all you want, but it doesn't mean a lot to me."
Without another elite player on the Texans defense, Watt can't be hidden, nor can he be avoided. He had two more sacks on Sunday against the Colts, but Indianapolis players said they weren't afraid of Watt, and that they did not try to run away from him.
"We didn't do that. At the end of the day, we men. Is the guy a good player? Yes, he is. But at the end of the day, we men," Colts tackle Gosder Cherilus said.
And that's certainly part of the argument against voting for Watt over a player like Rodgers or Brady, who isn't setting offensive records this year but has the Patriots in position to win the No. 1 seed in the AFC. Can Watt truly be the most valuable player – to his team, and in the league – if his team can't make the playoffs despite playing in one of the weakest divisions in the NFL?
"I think he should considered. Should he win it? I don't know if he should win it or not, but I do know he should at least be considered in that conversation based on the year that he's had and the numbers he's put up. Will he be? I don't know," Freeney said, shrugging. "It comes back to, what does MVP mean? You can't compare sacks and pass breakups and all that to touchdowns and yards. How can you compare the two?"
Contributing: Tom Pelissero
