Ranking the 30 best Defensive Player of the Year winning seasons

Ranking the 30 best Defensive Player of the Year winning seasons: 26. 1975 Mel Blount

Mel Blount put together one of the great seasons from the secondary ever. His eye-popping interception results stand out. He led the league with 11 interceptions, as quarterbacks were not as laser accurate as they are today. (Well, at least some of them.) He was part of The Steel Curtain defense that was just impossible to make any headway against.

Blount was the best ever when it comes to the “bump and run” style of play. He would not be denied at the line of scrimmage. This put him in a desirable position to succeed on almost every passing down. He knocked a receiver off their route, and the quarterbacks of the 70s weren’t seeing the field in a way that could help them call an audible mid-play.

Blount never stopped working, and it showed on the field in 1975. He had the assets. Blount was extremely quick and had long arms in order to stop his opponent, but it was his relentless motor that helped him become a star. Never giving up on the play led to a lot of sway with voters, and that got him the Defensive Player of the Year award.

This was a performance for the ages, and his numbers backed up the dominance he showed on the field. Teams weren’t even passing that much, but Blount’s impact on the opposing passing game really shut down half of the field.