Proof Darrelle Revis Will Win the 2009 DPOY Award

Inspired after watching Jets Pro Bowl cornerback Darrelle Revis shut down Future HOF Terrell Owens for the 2nd straight time, I wanted to energize fellow Jets fans with a prophesy rivaling the accuracy of one of the creepy Precog's in Minority Report.

Darrelle Revis Will Win the 2009 Defensive Player Of the Year Award

Yes, a curiously assumptive proclamation especially from a Jets fan like myself, right? Perhaps. The DPOY award will usually go to a Linebacker with a lot of tackles, Defensive End with a copious amount of sacks, or a ball-hawking (pause) safety. There isn't any player in the NFL right now that is a clear cut favorite to win this prestigious award. Why not a corner back? A cornerback winning the DPOY award is not unprecedented albeit uncommon. The last time it happened was in 1994 and that players name was Deion Sanders.

There are many ways to determine the effectiveness of a Defensive back in the NFL. You can talk about interceptions, tackles, or even ints returned for touchdowns. Many of these totals can be serendipitous and arbitrary.

Cornerbacks that have a lot of interceptions are feast or famine risk takers. They will primarily jump routes to get their picks and when they are wrong, it can turn into a long touchdown for the opposing team. Fortuitous circumstances (i.e. tipped balls from lineman), coaching tendencies, and quite frankly - How well your teams offense is performing can also be an X factor in these stat totals. Total tackles isn't a great barometer either for determining how good a defensive player is. All it usually means is that the player they're covering keeps catching the ball and moving the chains down field. The highest tacklers in the NFL are usually the middle linebackers on the worst teams.

If you really think about it, the Cornerbacks primary objective is to prevent the man (or man in the area) they are covering from catching the ball. Below is a comparison of opponents Deion Sanders covered in 1994 when he won the DPOY award along with the opponents Darrelle Revis covered thus far in 2009.

Now, a few things to note about how I came up with this. You should realize that I didn't actually watch each game that Prime Time played in 1994 because I was 12 and probably more interested in figuring out why I had hair in previously hairless places as opposed to analyzing the effectiveness of NFC West wideouts. What I did was determine the total season yards accumulated by the player on the opposing team and combined it with potential pro bowls that WR might of also had. I then assumed that Neon Deion likely covered that wide receiver. He should have if he was the original "Shut Down" corner right?

These stats conclude the fact that Revis held more talented wide receivers to less receptions, less yards, and less touchdowns. The kicker is that he did that in 3 MORE games than Deion. 3 MORE GAMES PEOPLE!

A couple of other things to realize. Deion had 6 interceptions that year, 3 for touchdowns. Certainly an impressive feat. Revis has 5 touchdowns this year with 1 returned to the house. Deion had 34 tackles and Revis has 37. To top it off, the Jets Team passing defense is ranked #1 in the NFL in terms of net passing yards and that's not because of Lito Sheppard folks (no offense, he's actually played well as of late).

I hope that I was able to enlighten some people out there as well as help build a case for the best defensive player in the NFL, Darrelle Revis. I challenge someone out there to put together a more compelling case. Otherwise, lets take the easy route and see who has the most interceptions on the best team and give the award to them.