Arrowheads Abroad Awards - Defensive Player Of The Year

Feb 8, 2015
3 min read

Defensive player of the year

By Dave Barnett

Top 3

1st - Justin Houston 80%

2nd - Sean Smith - 11 %

3rd - Dontari Poe - 4%

So the Chiefs had some pretty great pass rushers in their history. Guys like Derrick Thomas, Jarred Allen and Tamba Hali in the past 20 years alone have produced some pretty spectacular seasons of their own, but none of them were able to put together a season like the one Justin Houston just did in 2014.

For those of you that missed it, he became one of only ten players to break the 20-sack mark in a season, leading the league with 22 sacks, only half-a-sack shy of Michael Strahan’s all-time record. Those 22 sacks also meant that he had more sacks than the Bengals, Raiders and Falcons. Yes that sentence is as ridiculous as it sounds, three teams in the NFL failed to get as many sacks as Houston on his own. Pretty good eh?

As well as all the sacks, Houston pressured the Quarterback on 85 separate occasions. But the best thing about Houston though, is he is not just a pass rusher, he is the all-round complete package. He is an excellent cover linebacker, often being asked to drop back in coverage, while also being strong against the run, consistently making stops in the run game and not allowing backs to bounce outside to break off big runs. It’s quite safe to say that he is probably the best 3-4 OLB in the game today.

Now, normally a guy who has had a season as historic as the one Houston just has, would be a favourite for the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year, but another guy by the name of JJ Watt just happens to be quite good and had a nice season as well I guess. Now I’m not going to compare both players, because they play different positions in different systems, so let’s just say they are both really, really good and leave it at that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vr_d20dGPQw

So, back to Houston, do you want to know the scariest part about the whole thing? Houston has only just turned 26. You could argue he has not even reached his prime and he has already had one of the greatest pass rushing seasons of all time. He should easily (if injury free) have another 4-6 productive years rushing the passer, and hopefully all here in Kansas City.

I say hopefully, because when a guys plays as well as Houston does, and gets paid as little as Houston does (A little over $1million), you can be sure that said player will soon be getting paid. Now as it currently stands Houston is due to be a free agent this March, but be assured there is no way the Chiefs let him hit the open market.

At worst Houston will be hit with the Franchise Tag and make somewhere in the region of about $13mil next season, but ideally the Chiefs will hope to work out a long term deal to ensure Houston stays in KC for the foreseeable future. Now I’m not going to go placing any bets on what contract he will get, but I’d like to think a deal in the range of 6/$90mil would be close to what to expect. He is worth every penny and I fully expect the Chiefs to work something out at some point.

Whichever way the contract situation goes this offseason, Houston will be wearing Chief’s red again next season, and if he plays like he did this season, then Michael Strahan should be getting very worried about that record of his still standing at the end of 2015.