Why Steelers' T.J. Watt has surpassed Browns' Myles Garrett in DPOY race

The race for the 2023 NFL Defensive Player of the Year is heating up with just six weeks left in the regular season. Here are three reasons why Steelers LB T.J. Watt has officially passed Browns DE Myles Garrett for the lead.

Statistical lead

Following Watt's strong two-sack performance in Week 12 and Garrett's zero-sack outing, Watt now leads the league with 13.5 sacks. But sacks aren't the only category Watt leads Garrett in with the last third of the season ahead.

Watt has more solo tackles (31), fumble recoveries (three), interceptions (one) and quarterback hits (25) than Garrett, who only leads Watt in one category, forced fumbles (four), which he only has one more than him. 

QB problem

Cleveland has a serious quarterback problem. It lost QB Deshaun Watson for the season and now backup QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson's status is in question after leaving the game with a concussion last weekend.

That put more pressure on the Browns defense, which spent a lot of time on the field with the offense struggling. Watt, on the other hand, experienced the opposite with his offense clicking following the firing of offensive coordinator Matt Canada.

"I think we took 21, 22 snaps in the first half as a defense and that's huge," Watt told reporters after the game. "Offense was controlling time of possession... pent a lot of time on the bench today and that was awesome as a defense."

Health

To make matters worse for Garrett, he was seen leaving Sunday's game with his shoulder in a sling. NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reported he should be "OK" and is described as "sore, but day-to-day." However, injuries can linger and if Garrett's shoulder injury does, it will likely affect his play to some degree.

Watt experienced a similar scenario in 2022 when he suffered knee and pectoral injuries that resulted in a career-low 5.5 sacks. If Garret is healthy, there is still plenty of season left for him to take the lead back from Watt. But if the season were to end today, the 2021 NFL Defensive Player of the Year should win his second such award.