Dion Dawkins’ New Award Idea Is Excellent
Credit: Tina MacIntyre-Yee via Imagn Images
Think for a moment about how important an offensive line is. The NFL commentariat loves to talk about how games are won and lost in the trenches, but how much do they really believe it? They definitely believe it on one side of the ball. When they hand out Defensive Player of the Year awards, they almost exclusively go to defensive linemen and edge rushers.
But what about the guys who stop the pass-rushers? Looking at the list of Offensive Player of the Year, we see… nope, zero linemen. And as for MVP? Forget it. Kickers have a 1-nil lead on offensive linemen.
Sure, they gotta bring some offensive linemen to the Pro Bowl and when filling out the All-Pro teams, but that’s about it. And Dion Dawkins is tired of it.
“I’m knocking at so many doors now to get this award going now. I’m gonna spearhead and make sure it gets done before I’m done playing,” Dawkins vowed. “Because there’s so many greats, and we have great quarterbacks, we have great running backs, we have rushing titles, we have quarterback passing titles. All those titles are reflections on the o-linemen, which are the protectors.”
That last part is an amazing point. There’s an explosion league-wide in offense, in a league where defenses are increasingly optimized to attack the quarterback. The value of a great offensive line is obvious, but even so, the only award they get is whatever Christmas gifts their quarterback gets for them.
And now is the time to introduce the award. We have more information than ever at our fingertips to evaluate offensive linemen. If you want to find out who had the fewest pressures allowed among every-down linemen, you’ll see that the Kansas City Chiefs’ Creed Humphrey allowed just seven in 742 pass-blocking snaps. You can see that the Atlanta Falcons’ Chris Lindstrom had the highest PFF run-blocking grade, or that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Tristan Wirfs led the NFL in pass-blocking grade. The stats we have aren’t perfect, maybe, but they’re there, and having those things at our disposal is great for debate — the lifeblood of any award.
After all, there’s an Assistant Coach of the Year Award. Think about that. We’re not hating on it, and shoutout to Joe Brady for being a finalist. We’re pulling for you. But the idea that Brady can realistically win an award, but not a single member on a Bills O-Line that kept Josh Allen upright for all but 14 dropbacks is insane.
So, yeah, keep on keeping on, Dion. We support you. Don’t let your dreams be dreams.
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