The NFL is introducing the Protector of the Year Award, which will be given to the league’s best offensive lineman, it was announced at the league’s spring meeting Wednesday.
The winner will be decided by a panel that includes a number of former offensive line greats.
NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent gave credit to Buffalo Bills left tackle Dion Dawkins and retired offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth for pushing for the creation of the award.
Dawkins wrote that “History was made today,” in a post to X and thanked “everyone involved.”
History was made today. Something that starting with an Idea and a Conversation and Now the “Protector Of The Year” Award is Here and Here to Stay. Thank you to Everyone involved. Today WE made History #YouAlreadyShnow #ProtectorOfTheYear #history pic.twitter.com/qzYl7rY8xZ
— Dion Dawkins (@DDawkins66) May 21, 2025
Dawkins had talked about wanting an award to recognize offensive linemen in January, during the week before the AFC Championship Game.
“… Offensive linemen don’t have awards for being great. There’s not a protector of the year award. I’m knocking at so many doors now to get this award going, and I’m going to head spear it and make sure that this gets done before I’m done playing, because there’s so many greats, there’s so many greats. And if we have great quarterbacks, we have great running backs, we have rushing titles, we have quarterback passing titles. All those titles are reflections of the old linemen, which are the protectors and soon [it’ll] come,” he said.
Whitworth also took to X to react to news of the award coming to fruition.
“This award means everything to the big guys up front. The Protector of the Year isn’t just about stats-it’s about the mindset, grit, and leadership it takes to be the foundation of a football team,” Whitworth posted to X. “It’s time the men who lead, protect, and never ask for credit are recognized as the backbone of this game!”
ESPN’s Brooke Pryor and Alaina Getzenberg contributed to this report.
