The unfortunate injury to Detroit Lions DE Aidan Hutchinson, who is out for the season with a broken leg, makes Pittsburgh Steelers EDGE TJ Watt a new NFL candidate to win Defensive Player of the Year, DPOY. According to Betonline’s updated odds, Wattage is most preferred at +140. At +800, he’s clearly ahead of second-place San Francisco 49ers LB Fred Warner.
The top six are:
2024 NFL DPOY Odds
1. TJ Watt – +140
2. Fred Warner – +800
3. Max Crosby – +1000
3. Will Anderson Jr. – +1000
5. Chris Jones – +1200
5. Dexter Lawrence – +1200
Watt is coming off a dominant performance on Sunday despite not registering a sack. A versatile player, he found other ways to impact the game by forcing a pair of fumbles in the run game while also making two tackles for a loss. It was the fifth multiple forced fumble game of his career and the first with both runs opposed. His first set up Pittsburgh at the Las Vegas 30 and his second came on the goal line, preventing a touchdown in a game where the Raiders still had a chance to go back up.
This year, Watt currently ranks 11th with 4.5 sacks and tied for 4th with eight tackles for loss. He ranks second behind Warner in forced fumbles with three.
Hutchinson’s season is off to a hot start thanks to a 4.5 sack performance in Week 2. He entered yesterday as the NFL’s sack leader and took another lead in a blowout win over the Dallas Cowboys. But he suffered a horrific fracture to his tibia, and his leg was immediately placed in an air cast as soon as he was dragged off the pitch. On Monday, the Lions released the following statement regarding his status:
Coach Dan Campbell said Hutchinson will miss four to six months. Maybe it could lead to a miraculous Super Bowl recovery, but he certainly won’t play another regular season snap.
Watt has won Defensive Player of the Year honors once, and won the trophy in 2021 after tying the single-season record with 22.5 takedowns. He’s been overlooked several times since, including finishing second to Myles Garrett despite recording more sacks.
Interestingly, Garrett has pretty good odds of winning the award at +2800. The season favorite was Dallas Cowboys LB/EDGE Micah Parsons, but he has missed the last two games due to a high ankle sprain and has just one sack on the season. His odds are now at +4500.
Now that he’s the DPOY favorite, some believe he could have his sights set on a bigger prize. MVP. The award has been won by a quarterback every year since 2007, and the last defensive player to take home that kind of hardware was LB Lawrence Taylor in 1986.
