Who is the Jaguars' Top Candidate for New OL Award?

There is a new award in the NFL set to honor the league's top offensive lineman each year, with the Protector of the Year Award set to be established.

"I'm going to give credit to Dion Dawkins from Buffalo," NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent said this week.

"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."

Outside of Pro Bowl and All-Pro honors, offensive linemen have previously had no other way of being recognized each season for their play. With the new award, that is finally set to change as the NFL hinors its top offensive lineman every year.

The question now is who will be the first candidates for the award? Every offensive lineman will start from the same place, but who is the most dominant of the course of an entire season when it comes to offensive trench play?

Pro Football Network looking took a list at each team's best potential candidate for the new award. When it came to the Jacksonville Jaguars, the answer comes down to likely Week 1 starting left tackle Walker Little.

"The Jacksonville Jaguars were active adding offensive line talent this offseason, signing Patrick Mekari and Robert Hainsey to boost their interior. There’s a lack of star power on the unit which makes Little the best Protector Award candidate," PFN's Jacob Infante said.

Little has been the Jaguars' best offensive lineman for the majority of the last three seasons, though it is also a fair point to note that the Jaguars themselves may not have many obvious candidates since it is not a star-studded group with name recognition.

With that said, perhaps one of the Jaguars' new offensive linemen are able to take the offensive line and rushing game to a new level? If the line improves by leaps and bounds, and with the wins to follow it, then perhaps Patrick Mekari or Robert Hainsey would make sense as well.