NFL Will Finally Honor Offensive Linemen With New Annual Award

Weep no more for offensive linemen, the NFL's largest—and arguably most important—players whose impact on the game goes largely unnoticed and unrecognized.

NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent on Wednesday announced that the league will for the first time implement an award honoring the best offensive lineman, called the 'Protector of the Year' Award, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network.

A panel of both former and current offensive linemen, including retired former four-time Pro Bowl selection Andrew Whitworth and Buffalo Bills lineman Dion Dawkins, were among those to champion for the cause.

Dawkins in January had expressed his belief that such an award should exist and had vowed to see it done before his career was over.

"Offensive linemen don't have awards for being great," Dawkins said. "There's not a Protector of the Year award. I'm knocking at so many doors now to get this award going. I'm gonna spearhead it and make sure it gets done before I'm done playing. Because there's so many greats. There's so many greats."

"We have great quarterbacks, we have great running backs, we have rushing titles, we have quarterback passing titles. All those titles are reflections on the O-linemen, which are the protectors."

Before this, the NFL had no award to recognize offensive linemen for their individual excellence as they do for skill position and defensive players. Most of the time, if an offensive linemen was being recognized, it wasn't for a good reason.

Now, thanks to Dawkins and others, that will change.

Time to recognize the big fellas.

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