Give Zack Baun the DPOY, Cowards

If you've had the pleasure of watching a Philadelphia Eagles game this season, you've undoubtedly seen the human heat-seeking missile known as Zack Baun come scorching across the gridiron. Consider yourself lucky.

Number 53 has been incredible this season and he is more than worthy of the Associated Press' Defensive Player of the Year Award. There's just a little problem: the AP doesn't really care about giving the award to the most deserving player. They just give it to the biggest name with the prettiest stats. OLB TJ Watt is currently the favorite (-250) to win the award.

And for what? His 9.5 sacks are impressive, but it isn't the best in the league (that belongs to DE Trey Hendrickson with 11.5). He has just as many tackles for loss as Maxx Crosby, who isn't even in consideration for the award (+30000). He's just a really good player who is in the running for the award every year, so it's easy to just give it to him. You know the same few players - Watt, Myles Garrett, Nick Bosa - are both going to have DPOY worthy numbers at the end of each year, so it's easy to just give it to one of them. That doesn't mean someone - cough cough ZACK BAUN - doesn't deserve it more.

The Baunster won't win this award without our help, and that's why Barreldelphia Media is starting a grassroots effort to get Zack Baun the Defensive Player of the Year Award. This award has a heavy anti-bias towards inside linebackers; they haven't given the award to an ILB since Luke Kuechly in 2013. Surely Kuechly had an outstanding season, right? Right! But what if I told you Baun was doing almost the same thing:

https://x.com/NagleNFL/status/1863579361284128810

Baun's story is pretty terrific; The Saints drafted him in the third round of the 2020 Draft as an outside linebacker and, later, a special teamer. He became a free agent this past offseason and the Eagles snatched him up on a one year deal. The Eagles are notorious for never having even decent linebackers - they've not valued the position, historically - and they've found a gem in Baun. DC Vic Fangio saw that this guy wasn't an outside linebacker at all, he's got the ability to be a really good inside linebacker - and that he is.

https://x.com/The33rdTeamFB/status/1864357341799342163

We'll worry about re-signing/extending him later. For now, we just need to get the man the trophy he deserves (and he's gonna get us the one we deserve).