Where does DaRon Blands rapid ascension put him in Defensive Player of the Year discourse? – The Athletic

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Micah Parsons thought it was over. When Trevon Diggs was lost for the season before Week 3, the internal competition for Defensive Player of the Year looked like a done deal.

To see him go out, Parsons said, Im like, I lost Tre, I got this in the bag.

What Parsons, the self-proclaimed lion, didnt see was the dark horse behind him who would burst onto the national scene by making it a habit to gallop into the end zone.

DaRon Bland has not only been in the picture this season but hes also been the focus. Bland, who is a soft-spoken man of few words, exudes about as much humility as one will find from an elite player at his position.

(Teammates) know I dont like to talk too much, Bland said. They laugh at me when they see me on the camera.

Bland has been an elite cornerback. You can start by looking at the obvious part of his game that has rightfully stolen all the headlines. He leads the NFL with seven interceptions. Hes coming off a performance in which he intercepted a pass for a third consecutive game, returned it for a touchdown for the second consecutive game and set the NFL record for pick sixes in a season.

Believe it or not, thats only scratching the surface of Blands greatness.

Quarterbacks are posting a 36.9 passer rating when targeting Bland. As Sam Monson of Pro Football Focus put it, passes that have gone in Blands direction have yielded a passer rating three points worse than just throwing the ball at the ground 59 times instead. Blands 91.2 PFF grade is the highest coverage grade for cornerbacks through Week 12.

You cant go out there chasing plays, or youre not going to make plays, Bland said. When you try to chase plays, sometimes those plays dont happen, and then those other plays happen and you got the big plays on you and they end up scoring.

This is what separates Bland from the impressive season the guy he replaced (Diggs) had in 2021. You might recall, Diggs had 11 interceptions that season but was a lightning rod on social media because there was constant discourse about how much he was getting burned in coverage which was accurate. Diggs was at the top of the list of yards allowed by a cornerback and targeted for his lack of eagerness to tackle and get involved in the run defense.

Bland is the complete package. Hes not one to make business decisions in the run game. He displays a level of physicality that isnt common among cover corners, and hes solid in coverage, too. Thats not to say Bland is flawless. As recently as the last game, Washington Commanders quarterback Sam Howell had some success on a drive in the first half going at Bland. Even then, Bland was always in decent position and later cashed in with a big play in coverage in the second half.

Blands greatness is indisputable, but talking about his ascension in the context of Parsons bet with Diggs before the season about Defensive Player of the Year is a different conversation.

I hear it, people saying I should be in (the conversation), Bland said. If it happens, it happens.

According to BetMGM, Bland has the fourth-best odds to win Defensive Player of the Year. Thats a long way from Blands being designated as the third cornerback on the Dallas Cowboys depth chart up until the third week of the season.

Circumstances helped Blands climb into the upper echelon of the conversation. Having the star on ones helmet never hurts in organically generating eyeballs. Bland also started off fast with a pick six in the season opener in New York, had a big two-interception, one-touchdown game in the middle against the New England Patriots and is on a hot streak entering the home stretch of the regular season. Bland set the pick-six record on Thanksgiving in what was one of the most-watched regular-season games in NFL history.

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A cornerbacks winning the award is incredibly rare, although the most recent cornerbacks to win it have interesting Cowboys ties.

Cowboys cornerback Stephon Gilmore won the award in 2019 as a member of the Patriots. Before him, Charles Woodson won it in 2009 with the Green Bay Packers, where Mike McCarthy was coach. Before Woodson, longtime Cowboys cornerback Deion Sanders won the award in 1994 with the San Francisco 49ers.

If Bland can maintain his level of dominance, its hard to rule out anything, but right now, it still seems unlikely for him to take home the honors. Bland (+1,400) has the fourth-best odds, which is in its own tier above the fifth-best odds of Nick Bosa (+4,000). However, its also a full tier down from the top three: Myles Garrett (+150), Parsons (+175) and T.J. Watt (+250).

To be clear, thats not to say Blands success has been lucky, but there is an element of dependency involved. Given how visible his prowess has become, one would assume quarterbacks will either be a lot more careful throwing at him, particularly throwing late on out routes as has so often been the case this season, or will just stop going at him altogether. Hell still be a huge asset to the Cowboys defense, but his greatness wont be as overt as it is now.

For Garrett, Parsons and Watt, there are the hurdles of dealing with double-teams and extra bodies, but elite players at those positions still have control of their output. Sometimes its moving around along the defensive front, sometimes its stunts and creativity of the scheme, and most times, its sheer physical dominance. Either way, theres only so much an offense can do to consistently eliminate that players direct impact on the game.

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(Defensive line coach Aden Durde) always brings this up, hes like, You got to remember youre Micah fing Parsons this s is going to happen, Parsons said about teams holding him in trying to slow him down. I was like, you right. Hes like You got to keep going, f all the other stuff. Stuff like that, Im just like, Yeah, youre right. I just got to keep going. Thats kind of why Ive been getting these late-game sacks and just trying to survive in here and things like that, and Im going to keep hunting.

If Parsons keeps hunting, hes the player on the Cowboys defense who has the best chance to win Defensive Player of the Year. Parsons is tied for sixth in the NFL with 11 1/2 sacks but only two back of Watt and Danielle Hunter for the league lead. He also has 71 pressures, 47 hurries and a 34 percent pass-rush win rate. The final month of the season will offer plenty of opportunity for him to close the gap and make a louder case for himself over Watt and Garrett.

As for Bland, his goals for attaining hardware are unchanged, no matter what happens in the DPOY race.

Now, just trying to keep going, try to go all the way for the team, Bland said. Try to get a Super Bowl. I was always more into the team goals than anything. All of the individual goals will come with it.

(Photo: Kevin Sabitus / Getty Images)

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Where does DaRon Blands rapid ascension put him in Defensive Player of the Year discourse? - The Athletic