All this week, we’ll be bringing you our awards for the 2005 NFL season:
Offensive Rookie of the Year
Defensive Rookie of the Year
Offensive Player of the Year
Defensive Player of the Year
Coach of the Year
MVP
Disappointment of the Year
Here are our picks for Defensive Player of the Year. Defensive Player of the Year:
Ryan McGowan: Brian Urlacher, LB, Chicago Bears
I wanted to go with the Jets’ Jonathan Vilma here, who has simply incredible stats (118 solo tackles, 162 total) playing on just a putrid football team. However, I’m going to give my award to Urlacher as kind of a “team achievement” award. The Bears had the #1 defense in the league this year, and Urlacher had one of his best seasons yet, putting up 121 total tackles and 6 sacks. Not only that, but he is clearly the emotional leader of the Chicago defense. If the Bears manage to pull an ’00 Ravens and make the Super Bowl, I would bet it won’t be because of Rex Grossman or Muhsin Muhammad. The Bears defense IS the team, and Urlacher is the Bears defense.
Teri Berg: Jonathan Vilma, LB, New York Jets
Conventional wisdom requires we pick someone from a winning team and show how that player made a huge impact on his team’s success. But given Vilma’s stats and the way he’s made that Jets pass defense among the best in the league despite how bad this team stinks in every other conceivable way, I’ve gotta go with the second-year man from the U. Vilma’s got an unbelievable 162 tackles, 118 of them solo, with one game left in the season. That’s 55 more than he had in his fab rookie year in NY, and 13 more than Zach Thomas, who’s the league’s No. 2 tackler. (Vilma’s 118 solo tackles outdoes #2 Donnie Edwards of SD by 11.) This is a guy who’s putting every ounce of himself out there on the football field, trying to help his (hopeless) team. Herm Edwards announced on Thursday that Vilma had been voted the Jets’ MVP this season, and I just can’t think of a good enough reason to deny him defensive POY honors, which he clearly deserves.