Antoine Winfield Jr. deserves Defensive Rookie of the Year
By Rob Leeds
Antoine Winfield Jr. vs. Chase Young
Finally, the main event. While runner-up isn’t an award that anyone cares about, these two players should be in a class of their own for the voting. Winfield Jr. and Chase Young have clearly been the two best defensive rookies this year, and Winfield deserves the award.
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Chase Young is the overwhelming favorite to win this award not because of his stats or his performance on the field, but because of his draft position. The media has this way of latching on to players and holding on for dear life, and any challenger to the arena is brushed off quickly due to a smaller market.
Bucs fans should be very familiar with this as Young was the only story going into the matchup with Tampa Bay in the playoffs. Young dominated in the game, and the Washington Football Team pulled off a comfortable victory. Oh, wait. He was non existent in the biggest game of his young career.
While stats are not everything, the stats against Young are damaging. No pure pass rusher in the history of the AP Defensive Rookie of the Year award since sacks have been recorded as an official stat has ever won this award with less than eight total sacks. How can the award have any credibility if it goes to a player that plays the same role as Lawrence Taylor and Simeon Rice when a backup in 2019 blew this production out of the water?
Josh Allen, who only started four games for the Jaguars last season, finished his rookie year with more sacks than Young, the same number of tackles, and nearly twice as many quarterback hits. This is your runaway favorite for this prestigious award?
Chase Young is likely the least supported DROY winner of the players on this list. Young certainly has the most potential down the road and will change the Washington franchise forever, but again, that isn’t the award. To earn DROY, 7.5 sacks and 12 quarterback hits doesn’t cut it during 15 games as a starter.
Young still probably wins this award, as it was never about performances anyway, and the NFL world will applaud the “dominant” rookie season by the next NFL great, as they ignore the start of another.
Antoine Winfield Jr. deserves better, but a Super Bowl ring has a way of making the sting go away.
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