Myles Garrett joins rare club with unanimous DPOY Award

Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett (95). Joseph Maiorana-Imagn Images

Myles Garrett joins rare club with unanimous Defensive Player Of Year Award

By Adam Gretz | Last updated Feb 5, 2026 10:22 PM ET

The 2025 NFL Defensive Player of the Year award was probably the easiest one to project out of all the awards that were being announced on Thursday night. It was going to be Cleveland Browns superstar Edge rusher Myles Garrett. It was always going to be him. The only question was how big of an advantage he would have in the voting over the other finalists.

As it turns out, a pretty massive advantage.

So much so that it was a unanimous decision.

Myles Garrett is second player to ever win unanimous Defensive Player of the Year Award

Prior to Garrett's win this season, the only other unanimous defensive player of the year winner was former Houston Texans superstar J.J. Watt who had that honor back during the 2014 season.

Myles Garrett is the second player to win Defensive Player of the Year unanimously.

J.J. Watt in 2014 was the other. https://t.co/5HVzC4NYDs pic.twitter.com/vA37CAUegA
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 6, 2026

It is Garrett's second Defensive Player of the Year Award, and a very worthy honor.

Despite the Browns' continued incompetence as an organization, and especially on the offensive side of the ball, Garrett was a one-man game-wrecker every single week and consistently one of the most dominant individual players in football.

Not only did teams go out of their way to take him out of every game, he still managed to play through it and dominate.

So much so that he set the NFL single-season sack record with 23.0 and leading the league with 33 tackles for loss. Along with both of those achievements, he also had three forced fumbles, a pass defense, 39 quarterback hits and was a Pro Bowl nominee and a first-team All-Pro.

Quite honestly, a first-place vote for anyone else other than him this season would have just felt out of place. Now he is one of just two players to ever win it in that manner.

Adam Gretz

Adam Gretz is a freelance writer based in Pittsburgh. He covers the NHL, NFL, MLB and NBA. Baseball is his favorite sport -- he is nearly halfway through his goal of seeing a game in every MLB ballpark. Catch him on Twitter @AGretz

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