It's finally here Samad
Defensive Player of the Year Race
1) Louis- Warriors
The reigning DPOY is back at it again tied for the league lead in interceptions with 7 with still one game to play. He has taken a couple of them back to the house and is even throwing some special teams contributions in the mix with a punt return touchdown last week. You can throw at him at your own risk but he stands as the premier defender in Retro for now.
2) Neiko- Phantoms
The towering rookie has made himself known as a lurking safety coming up huge just this past weekend with 5 interceptions between two games including a huge pick six off of Tayeb to solidify the perfect regular season record. This team does not play a ton of man and we will have to see if he can hold up going against quicker receivers when that does happen but for now he is a true ball hawk who is great at lurking in the middle of the field. What a steal by ZQ.
3) Ruhel- Niners
Still tied for the league lead in picks with seven despite being across the world for the last two weeks you can see how important he was to the Niners defense. They have struggled mightily since he left and Moody is left searching for the answer. He will not win the award as he only appeared in four games but it was an impressive campaign none the less.
4) Samad- Phantoms
Must be nice to be the commissioners favorite. ZQ gets two players in the top 4 with Samad having six interceptions while missing a couple of games. If you combine him with his teammate Neiko they average a normal height but they have oversized talent on this end of the field. With Samad manning the middle and Neiko playing deep no wonder this team has not lost.
Honorable Mention
AZ (when playing Moody)
This is a very specific occurrence when the usually solid but rarely spectacular AZ turns into Primetime Deion Sanders and Ed Reed rolled into one person. Something about sticking it to Moody just brings it out in him. In this and only this situation he is far and away the best player in the league.
Zamir- Bing Bong
He can be seen on the field loudly exclaiming his talent on this end of the field. He does have some good numbers with 5 interceptions on the year. The whisper among the quarterbacks of the league is that in Bing Bong's man heavy scheme they will keep throwing at him because while he may come up with some ints he will more than give it back while getting smoked by most of the leagues good receivers. Samad was heard saying he torched him for 100 plus on Saturday. So with him I guess if you like numbers he would be your guy. If you want an actual lockdown defender look at the rest of this list.