Myles Garrett winning DPOY over T.J. Watt leaves fans calling out NFL - “Not deserved”; “Robbed”

Myles Garrett and TJ Watt can be considered mirror images of each other. They were drafted in 2017 and have emerged as two of the top pass rushers in the league. Each has multiple All-Pro and Pro Bowl nominations and have been in the playoffs multiple times.

However, only one of them was going to win Defensive Player of the Year on Thursday. It ended up being Garrett, the Cleveland Browns' former first overall pick, who beat his Pittsburgh Steelers rival by 15 points in the polls.

Fans, though, were not too pleased with the result, with one tweeting:

"Not deserved Imao fraud"

Another chimed in:

"TJ Watt with the robbery of the decade"

Here are the top reactions on X:

Watt would himself react to the snub:

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TJ Watt vs Myles Garrett stats

Given TJ Watt's statistical dominance, his loss to Myles Garrett may come as a shock. Here are the numbers for both players:

Myles Garrett	Stat	TJ Watt
42	Total tackles	68
33	Solo tackles	48
17	Tackles for loss	19
14	Sacks	19
37	Pressures	50
16	QB hits	18
4	Forced fumbles	4
1	Fumble recoveries	3
3	Deflected passes	8

From the table, it's clear that the Steeler was very dominant in the regular season, with forced fumbles the only stat where he was matched, let alone surpassed, by the Brown.

However, the voting committee must have also taken playoff games into account. Watt did not appear in the Wild Card game at the Buffalo Bills because of a knee injury. Garrett did - registering three tackles (all but one solo) in a 45-14 loss at the Houston Texans.

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Writer calls Myles Garrett winning Defensive Player of the Year a win for analytics

There's one group of people who will be elated at the result, employess at analytics sites like Pro Football Focus, according to Adam Gretz, a Pittsburgh-based freelancer.

In a column for Yardbarker, he opined that as early as the first few weeks of the 2023-24 season, Garrett had been beating Watt in the stuff casuals and even a few diehards often overlook, and he had also contracted some injuries later:

"What made Garrett stand out in the eyes of the voters is that he was the far more dominant player when it came to several advanced metrics, specifically his pass-rush win rate as measured by PFF. Garrett was consistently one of the highest rated defenders by PFF's analytics for his ability to consistently beat the people trying to block him.

"It didn't always result in sacks or getting to the quarterback, but it certainly drove the discussion around Garrett's season."

He concluded by saying that such a feat might change how awards are handed out in the future.