NFL introducing Protector of the 12 months Award for offensive linemen
The NFL is introducing the Protector of the 12 months Award, which will probably be given to the league’s greatest offensive lineman, it was introduced on the league’s spring assembly Wednesday.
The winner will probably be determined by a panel that features quite a lot of former offensive line greats.
NFL government vp of soccer operations Troy Vincent gave credit score to Buffalo Payments left sort out Dion Dawkins and retired offensive sort out Andrew Whitworth for pushing for the creation of the award.
Dawkins wrote that “Historical past was made at the moment,” in a publish to X and thanked “everybody concerned.”
Historical past was made at the moment. One thing that beginning with an Concept and a Dialog and Now the “Protector Of The 12 months” Award is Right here and Right here to Keep. Thanks to Everybody concerned. At this time WE made Historical past #YouAlreadyShnow #ProtectorOfTheYear #historical past pic.twitter.com/qzYl7rY8xZ
— Dion Dawkins (@DDawkins66) Might 21, 2025
Dawkins had talked about wanting an award to acknowledge offensive linemen in January, throughout the week earlier than the AFC Championship Recreation.
“… Offensive linemen haven’t got awards for being nice. There’s not a protector of the yr award. I am knocking at so many doorways now to get this award going, and I will head spear it and ensure that this will get executed earlier than I am executed taking part in, as a result of there’s so many greats, there’s so many greats. And if we now have nice quarterbacks, we now have nice operating backs, we now have dashing titles, we now have quarterback passing titles. All these titles are reflections of the outdated linemen, that are the protectors and shortly [it’ll] come,” he mentioned.
Whitworth additionally took to X to react to information of the award coming to fruition.
“This award means all the pieces to the massive guys up entrance. The Protector of the 12 months is not nearly stats-it’s concerning the mindset, grit, and management it takes to be the muse of a soccer workforce,” Whitworth posted to X. “It is time the boys who lead, shield, and by no means ask for credit score are acknowledged because the spine of this recreation!”
ESPN’s Brooke Pryor and Alaina Getzenberg contributed to this report.
