Photo: Andy Lewis/Icon Sportswire

When talking about the NFL’s biggest superstars, it’s almost always quarterbacks and skill players that are in the discussion. Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Saquon Barkley, Ja’Marr Chase, and others are frequently brought up, as they should be, but they also overshadow other great players. With the NFL’s introduction of the Protector of the Year award, one of the league’s most underappreciated position groups will be getting more of the spotlight.

Advocates, Panel, and Criteria

There are a few people who deserve special recognition for creating an award that honors offensive linemen. Troy Vincent, the NFL’s executive vice president of football operations said Dion Dawkins and Andrew Whitworth were “truly instrumental” in putting things into motion.

Whitworth was a Super Bowl champion, Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year, multi-time All-Pro and Pro Bowler, and had two of the best seasons for left tackles in terms of Blocking Total Points since we began charting in 2016. His 2021 season (41 Total Points) ranks 1st since then, while his 2019 season (40 Total Points) ranks 3rd.

Whitworth will be on the voting panel for the Protector of the Year, alongside Jason Kelce, Orlando Pace, Will Shields, Shaun O’Hara, and LeCharles Bentley. Kelce’s 2022 season was legendary by SIS standards. He recorded 49 Blocking Total Points, which is our highest single-season total, regardless of position.

The criteria that these NFL legends will use to vote includes “skills, metrics, impact, leadership, durability, and strength of opponent.” It will be especially interesting to see how they measure positional impact, given that they have more former interior offensive linemen (Kelce, Shields, O’Hara, Bentley) than tackles (Whitworth, Pace) on the panel.

Dion Dawkins, who heavily advocated for the award to be created, is coming off a terrific season himself. He ranked 4th among all offensive linemen in Total Points (38) last season but was first for left tackles specifically. Josh Allen’s blind-side protector is coming off his fourth consecutive Pro Bowl season, and he was also on the 2024 SIS NFL All-Pro Second Team.

How SIS Evaluates Offensive Linemen

SIS has tracked every NFL play from every game since 2015, which allows us to capture a wide variety of data points for every position. For offensive linemen, we chart everything from simple stats (games played, holds, false starts, pass/run blocking snaps) and that, along with play results, allows us to calculate more advanced data (blown block percentage, Total Points, stats when run behind, etc.).

Our most useful statistic is Total Points, which is essentially an all-encompassing data point.  Using Total Points, we can easily compare different players to see who was worth more over the course of a season.

For offensive lineman, we can look at how many Blocking Total Points a player has earned overall, or we can break it down into run plays or pass plays. In the run game, most of the evaluation comes from yards-before-contact performance above expectation, giving the most responsibility to the blockers at the point of attack. In the pass game, the ability to sustain blocks given the depth of the quarterback’s drop is key. In both cases we leverage our blown block charting heavily, because blown blocks are drive-killers.

The panel is going to use a number of different factors to determine the winner of the Protector of the Year award. Total Points is well-suited to measuring two of these in particular, metrics and durability.

Who Would Have Won in 2024?

The first Protector of the Year is still a few months away, but luckily, we have Total Points data that goes all the way back to 2016. If we take a look at last year specifically, we can make an educated guess on who might have won in 2024.

Here are the top 10 offensive linemen from last season in terms of Total Points, along with their position, team, and blown block percentage:

As you can see, Landon Dickerson and Hjalte Froholdt were our top-rated offensive lineman from 2024. Dickerson gets the slight edge due to rounding his Total Points down to 40, while Froholdt rounded up. Either way, both players rank within the top 25 of single-season Total Points earners since 2016.

Joel Bitonio was the top pass blocker (26 Total Points), while Dickerson was the top run blocker (26 Total Points).

Kevin Zeitler had the lowest blown block percentage from this list at 1.1%, with just 11 total on the year. Erik McCoy only had 1 blown block on the season (0.4% blown block percentage), but only played 276 snaps compared to Zeitler’s 1,007. Given that the panelists want to reward durability, McCoy wouldn’t have qualified.

For some perspective, Patriots’ right tackle Demontrey Jacobs was one of the worst performers in this category. He led the NFL with 53 blown blocks (6.6% blown block percentage), despite playing in 15 of 17 games.

Falcons C Drew Dalman was the leader in Total Points per game (2.7), but he only played 525 snaps. Dickerson and Dawkins both played at least 897 snaps and had the same Total Points per game (2.6).

Since we already have the data, our staff went ahead and voted on a 2024 Protector of the Year:

Staff Picks

Dickerson got 4 of the 6 votes from our football operations crew, which rewarded him for outstanding run blocking for a Super Bowl winner.

Who Will Win the First Ever Protector of the Year?

Looking ahead to 2025, our staff have made their predictions for the first ever Protector of the Year. Six voters picked five different players, so it’s fair to say the race is wide open.

Staff Picks