While the trending topic of the league's owner meetings was the proposed tush push ban that failed, some other changes occurred, including a new player award added. The NFL already has the Most Valuable Player (which is basically a quarterback award) along with Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year awards. This led to offensive linemen, perhaps the most integral part to a successful offense, getting zero recognition outside of All-Pro teams.
The new award will officially be called the Protector of the Year Award, and it will be decided by a group that includes former high-level linemen. NFL executive vice president of football operations and former All-Pro cornerback Troy Vincent talked about the award and how influential Bills left tackle Dion Dawkins was in the process.
"I'm going to give credit to Dion Dawkins from Buffalo," Vincent said. "He was truly instrumental, him and Andrew Whitworth, of just making sure that we recognize the big fellas. LeCharles Bentley, Jason Kelce, Shaun O'Hara, Orlando Pace, Will Shields and Andrew Whitworth will be the panel. ... They've come up with a criteria on skills, metrics, impact, leadership, durability and strength of the opponent. We'll be tracking that quarterly with this group."
Protector of the Year award would have been dominated by Joe Thomas
Browns' Hall of Fame left tackle Joe Thomas would have been a multi-time winner of this award had it existed during his playing days. Thomas was a six-time First-Team All-Pro selection from 2009-2015 and didn't miss a single snap. He posted three top-five overall PFF grades at the position in that span and finished in the top-five PFF pass grades every year except 2010.
Nick Roesch of A to Z Sports retroactively named the last 10 Protector of the Year award winners if it had existed, and he had Thomas winning in 2015, which was his final First-Team All-Pro selection.
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Voter fatigue aside, this would have been a rare award dominated by Cleveland in the early 2010s. Joel Bitonio would also have been in real consideration for the award back in 2021, where he graded top-five in both pass and run blocking in one of his two First-Team All-Pro selections. Roesch instead gave it to San Francisco left tackle Trent Williams.
While the Browns still have former First-Team All-Pros Jack Conklin and Bitonio, it would be a bit of a surprise to see any Cleveland player come away with the award in its inaugural year. Thomas did get plenty of recognition for his elite days in Cleveland, but it's interesting to think about how many of these awards would have gone to him.