After a dominant season with the Houston Texans, J.J. Watt has been named the NFL’s defensive player of the year.
Watt led the league with 20.5 sacks and had a stunning 16 pass deflections, and he was not only the NFL’s most dominant defensive lineman, but he had arguably the most dominant season that any NFL defensive lineman has ever had.
The 50-member Associated Press panel that votes on NFL awards gave Watt the defensive player of the year honor almost unanimously: Watt got 49 votes, while Denver outside linebacker Von Miller got one.
Miller had a fine season, but it’s surprising that any voter chose any player other than Watt as the NFL’s best defender in 2012.
UPDATE 8:33 p.m. ET: The Associated Press has confirmed to PFT that the voter who chose Miller was Ashley Fox, a Philadelphia-based writer for ESPN.com.