Earl Thomas has a shot at Defensive Player of the Year?

[CortezKennedyfan]

Earl has had a great season.

Only 5 safeties have ever won the award:

1973 Dick Anderson Miami Dolphins
1984 Kenny Easley Seattle Seahawks

But of those 5... in the modern era there have been 3 out of the last decade...

2004 Ed Reed-Ravens -62 solo tackles-14 assisted tackles-3 Forced Fumble-9 INT-2 Sacks
2007 Bob Sanders-Colts -71 solo tackles-25 assisted tackles-1 Forced Fumble-2 INT-3.5 Sacks
2010 Troy Polamalu-Steelers -49 solo tackles-14 assisted tackles-1 Forced Fumble-7 INT-1 Sack


SO FAR...
2013 Earl Thomas -Seahawks- 61 solo tackles-10 assisted tackles-2 Forced Fumbles-4 INT-0 Sacks

 

[dontbelikethat]

He has a shot, but there's a lot of competition.

Robert Mathis has 11.5 sacks, Justin Houston 11, Mario Williams 10, Robert Quinn 10, and then Aqib Talib who has been arguably the best corner this year has 4 picks along with Sherman and Thomas which are also in the race. Through the first half of the year, it would be one of these guys, but there's still another half left, so we'll who who can continue their play.

NFL.com predictions: http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap200000 ... r-and-more

(Most picked Sherman)

EDIT: If it were up to me, I think I would give a very slight edge to Justin Houston, and then it would be Sherman or Thomas, but you can't really go wrong with either.

 

[bestfightstory]

He got robbed of an INT on perfect coverage yesterday.

It was an outrage.




Also, barring a record setting type season from a player elsewhere, extra weight will be given to a player on me of the NFL's premier defenses.

 

[el capitan]

It's a pass happy league these days and with 400 passing games becoming almost a weekly occurrence I think the pass rushers stats should be taken with a pinch of salt. It stands to reason that as the number of pass attempts per game increases so will the number of sacks.

Besides, there is so much more to Earl's game than a DE or Cornerback is asked to do.

 

[SmokinHawk]

Admittedly, I did not watch much Seahawks football during the Easley years, but Earl Thomas has been impacting the game in a way I've never quite seen from a free safety before. Polamalu and Reed in their prime are his closest comparison, but I feel his game is still a notch above theirs. He's on pace for 120 tackles, 8 INTs, and "pops out" on film every time you look at him. If that's not a DPOY candidate, I don't know what is.

 

[LawlessHawk]

Looks like we need to get Earl a couple sacks.

 

[jblaze]

It's a long shot but a possibility. He bounced off that RB yesterday though, didn't look like DPOY to me.... Stop trying to knock people out and wrap up!

 

[jlwaters1]

bestfightstory":2sf579st]He got robbed of an INT on perfect coverage yesterday.

It was an outrage.[/b]



Also, barring a record setting type season from a player elsewhere, extra weight will be given to a player on me of the NFL's premier defenses.

He also gave up to 2 TD's to Mike Glennon.

 

[TJH]

Yesterday definitely wasn't his best game. Too many missed tackles and got scored on twice.

 

[Subzero717]

Five minutes to throw the ball on one TD is not on him. Plus he got robbed on the INT which I believe les to said TD. He also led team in tackles. He may have missed a couple but that comes with volume in anything.

 

[Tical21]

I don't think it looks good for him this year. Just too many DE's with too many sacks. Somebody is going to get near 20. Unless he goes on a pick run and/or finds a way to score more TD's, I don't think he has a legit shot.

 

[MontanaHawk05]

Don't give it to him. The team plays way better when they feel like they've been robbed.

 

[253hawk]

He wasn't robbed on the INT...his left foot came down on the line. The penalty was still BS, though. I really hate that DPI is a spot foul and not just 15 yards like college; any under-thrown deep ball in single coverage feels like it's got a 50-50 chance of being DPI.

 

[Popeyejones]

^^^ Yeah, wouldn't have been an int, but I still disagreed with the call.

As for Thomas, I don't think his year has been nearly as good as his stats. Having watched every Hawks game I was really surprised when national media started talking about him as a potential DPY in the past couple weeks.

His stat line looked great from last game (as it does over the year), but that's what's going to happen with a safety when the opposing running backs are getting to the third level over and over again. Yesterday he missed two tackles pretty badly (just got flat out trucked trying to lay a knockout blow on one of them), was caught out of position a couple times, and also got burned for two TDs. Basically, I think he's the same very, very good player he has always been, but is still good for a couple blown tackles and really, really bad angles a game. Despite those things he's still a top 5 safety in the league IMO, but nowhere even close to belonging in the DPY conversation. Who knows, though. Stats get rewarded, and stats and quality play don't always line up too well.*

*Me and my buddies use to call it the Derek Smith phenomenon. He led the 9ers in tackles for five years in a row and the national media would always talk him up because of his statistics, but if you actually watched him play he was really awful. When not getting swallowed up instead of attacking the ball he would drift backwards and try to make tackles 7-12 yards downfield over and over again. He ended up with a whole bunch of tackles doing this, but he was one of the least effective defenders on the field and got credit for it from the national media who just looked at the stat sheet. Thomas is of course really, really good whereas Smith was really bad, but I do think it's similar in that it's stats driving the conversation, not actually play on the field (for example, we don't keep stats for blown tackles, although we should).

 

[thebanjodude]

Can't agree with you at all popeye. Yesterday wasn't a good game for him, but he has been lights out this season. His stats are awesome and the eye test backs it up. Last year he missed too many tackles and dropped too many picks, but this year he has shown marked improvement in both areas. He's an obvious 1st team All-Pro choice again this year and deserves consideration for DPOY.

 

[Popeyejones]

^^^just to be clear I think he's obviously a pro-bowler and definitely belongs in the all pro conversation, I just disagree with him being anywhere near consistent enough to be in the DPY conversation.

 

[bigwrm]

I semi-agree with Popeye in that I didn't think ET played very well yesterday, but that was an aberration considering how consistently great he has been this year. It was especially noticeable because Mark Barron seemed to really outplay Earl. Can you imagine combining Earl's speed and coverage ability with Barron's tackling ability in the run game? I wonder if being down 21 Earl was taking more risks and trying to force a turnover. It's hard to say by memory if he was out of position on the touchdowns scored against him but the missed tackles were noticeable, although he seems to have improved in that department this year. On the phantom PI call he did an amazing job in coverage whether or not it would have been an interception.

 

[KitsapHawk]

It's a pass happy league these days and with 400 passing games becoming almost a weekly occurrence I think the pass rushers stats should be taken with a pinch of salt. It stands to reason that as the number of pass attempts per game increases so will the number of sacks.

Besides, there is so much more to Earl's game than a DE or Cornerback is asked to do.

:idea:
Why does this seem to be the first person to bring up this obvious correlation? Never thought of that before. Of course, ESPN/NFLN were never known for their investigative journalism...

 

[JGfromtheNW]

It's a pass happy league these days and with 400 passing games becoming almost a weekly occurrence I think the pass rushers stats should be taken with a pinch of salt. It stands to reason that as the number of pass attempts per game increases so will the number of sacks.

Besides, there is so much more to Earl's game than a DE or Cornerback is asked to do.

:idea:
Why does this seem to be the first person to bring up this obvious correlation? Never thought of that before. Of course, ESPN/NFLN were never known for their investigative journalism...

Doesn't the fact that it's becoming a passing league give more opportunities to ET to make INT's and defend passes?

It goes both ways :stirthepot:

 

[SeaWolv]

He got robbed of an INT on perfect coverage yesterday.

It was an outrage.

Yeah that was a terrible PI call.

However Thomas got abused on the first 2 TD's.

With Thomas covering, Wright made a cutback while going across the back of the endzone and Earl took his eyes off of him leaving him wide open.

Then Underwood sprinted to the middle of the endzone and was wide open then moved from the middle towards the front corner, Thomas saw him run in but for some reason hesitated then had to sprint full speed but got there a second too late. Not sure why he waited to get on Underwood since all the other receivers were covered.