In this renaissance offseason for the Houston Texans, where the love for the team is flowing from every corner of the football universe, we took time earlier this week to power rank the most likely Houston Texans to take home award hardware for the 2024 season. The two most critically acclaimed 2023 rookies, C.J. Stroud and Will Anderson, were at the forefront of that conversation.

We know that Stroud currently sits tied for third on the MVP odds board, after the massive Stefon Diggs trade from last week. But where does Anderson sit on the odds for the NFL  2024 Defensive Player of the Year, essentially the defensive players' version of the MVP award? Glad you asked! He actually sits a little higher than I suspected he would:

Micah Parsons +550
T.J. Watt +650
Nick Bosa +700
Myles Garrett +700
Maxx Crosby +700
Aidan Hutchinson +1200
Josh Allen (JAX) +2000
WILL ANDERSON, JR.. +2500
Chris Jones +3000
Montez Sweat +3000

So Anderson sits firmly at eighth on the odds board. Certainly, the additions made to the Texans' defense, particularly at defensive end, Danielle Hunter and Denico Autry, are going to make life easier for Anderson to get to the quarterback (provided one of Hunter or Autry doesn't get there first).

It's interesting to see just how many of the top ten candidates are edge rushers. The only one on the board who really doesn't fit that mold is Jones, and even he is a double digit sack type player rushing from the interior for the Chiefs. Much the same way the MVP award has become a quarterback's award, so too has Defensive Player of the Year become focused on edge rushers. Sacks are sexy!

If Anderson were to win the Defensive Player of the Year award, in this season or any season, he would become the eleventh former Defensive Rookie of the Year to take home at least one Defensive Player of the Year trophy. Three former DRoY's have won multiple DPoY awards. Here is the full list, in chronological order by year they were DRoY, and with the years they won DPoY in parentheses:

1969 - “Mean” JOE GREENE (1972, 1974)
1974 - JACK LAMBERT (1976)
1981 - LAWRENCE TAYLOR (1981, 1982, 1986)
1993 - DANA STUBBLEFIELD (1997)
1998 - CHARLES WOODSON (2009)
2000 - BRIAN URLACHER (2005)
2003 - TERRELL SUGGS (2011)
2012 - LUKE KUECHLY (2013)
2014 - AARON DONALD (2017, 2018, 2020)
2019 - NICK BOSA (2023)

Nine of the ten players listed above have retired. Of those nine, five are Hall of Famers, two are mortal locks to get into the Hall of Fame (Kuechly, Donald), one is an interesting conversation (Suggs), and one will just have to settle for being really good at football (Stubblefield). Nick Bosa is the only active player, and he is most certainly on a Hall of Fame type track.

It's early in Will Anderson's career, but he sure is following in the footsteps of the right players, and is playing the right position to get that next level recognition.

Listen to Sean Pendergast on SportsRadio 610 from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. weekdays. Also, follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/SeanTPendergast, on Instagram at instagram.com/sean.pendergast, and like him on Facebook at facebook.com/SeanTPendergast.