Myles Garrett beats out Steelers’ T.J. Watt for Defensive Player of the Year

T.J. Watt won’t find out if he will win a second AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year award for another two weeks. But Wednesday, it was announced he lost out to Myles Garrett for a similar honor.

Garrett, the Cleveland Browns’ star edge defender, was named the Professional Football Writers of America’s Defensive Player of the Year. While the AP’s award is considered more of the official honor of record, the PFWA’s balloting typically aligns with it. In only one of the past 10 years has the PFWA DPOY pick differed from the AP’s: In 2017, the former’s pick was Calais Campbell, the latter’s Aaron Donald.

Since the turn of the century, that is one of only three instances the PFWA and AP did not agree on who was the NFL’s best defensive player. One of those occasions came in 2010, when the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Troy Polamalu took home the AP honor, but the PFWA went with the Green Bay Packers’ Clay Matthews.

Watt led the NFL in sacks with 19. Garrett was tied for seventh with 14. Watt also had a league-high 36 QB hits, tied for second in the league in defensive fumble recoveries with three, had the fifth-most forced fumbles with four and ranked fifth in tackles for loss with 19. All rankings were higher than Garrett’s. Watt also had more tackles (68 to 42), solo tackles (48 to 33) and passes defended (8 to 3) than Garrett.

The Browns did finish No. 1 in the NFL in total defense (yards allowed); the Steelers were 21st. The Steelers, though, allowed fewer points per game.

Watt in 2020 finished as runner-up for the AP DPOY award to Donald and in 2019 placed third in the AP balloting.

The AP award will be announced during the NFL awards show Feb. 8.

Sullivan’s interviews

Steelers quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan had interviews scheduled with the Las Vegas Raiders and New Orleans Saints for their vacant offensive coordinator positions, according to separate reports by the NFL Network. The Steelers quarterbacks coach the past three seasons, Sullivan called the plays the final eight games of the season (including playoffs) after the firing of Matt Canada.

Sullivan has four prior seasons of experience as an NFL coordinator for two teams. Coach Mike Tomlin said last week that the Steelers are looking at outside candidates for a permanent offensive coordinator.