30 NFL players you won’t believe never won an award

23. Dwight Freeney
Pro Football Hall of Fame: 2024

While defensive backs don’t get the justice they deserve, there is nobody saying that about pass rushers. The pass rusher is considered one of the three most important positions on a football field. The first is quarterback, as we can tell by how MVP voting goes every year. Second is either a pass rusher, the man trying to lay a QB out, or an offensive tackle, the guy trying to keep the quarterback upright. Dwight Freeney was one of the premier pass rushers of his era.

Freeney had double-digit sacks in seven of his first nine seasons. When Freeney put together a 13-sack season in his rookie year, that had only been accomplished once in history. Jevon Kearse had 14.5 sacks in 1999, but it seems impossible that another defensive rookie could put together a season like Freeney’s in 2002. Voters disagreed and gave the award to Julius Peppers (who did have one less sack but he missed time). (Aldon Smith has since passed Freeney, putting him third on the list all-time.)

Freeney seemed like a lock to eventually win the Defensive Player of the Year award. Thanks to his teammate Peyton Manning, he was always playing in the biggest games in front of the biggest audiences. Freeney would feed off those pressure moments. The Colts biggest rivals were the New England Patriots, and Freeney took pride in sacking Tom Brady. He did it five times in his career, including in his final game in the NFL.

He was close on multiple occasions, including finishing second in Defensive Player of the Year voting in 2005, but he was never able to get over the hump. Brian Urlacher was given the award that year, but Freeney felt like he had the better season overall. We’re sure Freeney would rather have the Super Bowl his Colts won over the Bears in the 2006 season.