Who do you think deserves the Defensive Player of the Year award?
 

I was watching NFL Live earlier and they discussed this today. There are some very deserving candidates this year and it got me wondering which one I think deserves it most..

They had four guys that they narrowed the voting down to (Sherman, Kuechly, Mathis and Quinn) with three additional honorable mentions (Bowman, Watt, and Thomas) so I'll stick to having those guys on the poll.

Quinn or Sherman

Luke Kuechly

Luke Keuchly: 156 tackles, 2.0 sacks, and 4 INTs.

Richard Sherman: (League-leading) 8 INTs, 16 passes defensed and 1 TD.

Navorro Bowman: 145 tackles, 5.0 sacks, 2 INTs, 4 FFs and 1 TD.

Robert Mathis: (League-leading) 19.5 sacks, 8 FFs and 1 safety.

Robert Quinn: 19.0 sacks, (league-leading) 23 TFL and 7 FFs.

Earl Thomas: 105 tackles, 9 passes defensed, 5 INTs and 2 FFs.

JJ Watt: 10.5 sacks, 22 TFL, 7 passes defensed and 4 FFs.

I could see an argument for anyone of them. Although the argument for Watt would be the weakest given the dip his stats took, that can most likely be attributed to his shitty team. They barely ever had a lead this season so his opportunities for sacks and passes defensed were probably considerably less numerous..

If forced to choose, I'd say Mathis.

It's hard to pick between Bowman, Mathis or Quinn. Keuchly is up there as well.

Bowman, he needs a consolation prize for blowing up his knee anyway.

i wish we had a safety like Earl Thomas holy **** at those stats

Yeah...it'd be nice to have a DC use our top 5 safety like he should be. Instead we have a $11 million/year glorified LB.

I think I remember hearing that a safety having 100+ tackles as well as 5+ INTs in a season has either never happened before or only a handful of times at the most. Impressive for sure..

But in fairness to Berry, he and Thomas are used in completely different ways. Berry is basically used the same way Kam Chancellor is in Seattle so it would be more appropriate to compare those two.

Luke QB'd his defense and made the calls in many situations. I'll take him. He gave Brady fists.

Kendick Lewis had a year nobody will ever forget-he should get some kind of award.

I'd give it to Quinn or Mathis.