NFL Defensive Player of the Year Odds 2026 | DPOY Futures

The NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award is given to the player who produces the best season on the defensive side of the football. Below is a list of the latest betting odds for the 2026-27 NFL Defensive Player of the Year winner.

2026-27 NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award Winner Odds

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2026-27 NFL Defensive Player of the Year Contenders

Current Best Bet: Fred Warner (LB, 49ers)

Warner has been exactly what he was before last year’s injury wiped out the back half of his season — PFF’s top-graded linebacker in 2025 (93.2 overall, with the rare combination of 90+ grades in both run defense and coverage) — and he’s picked up right where he left off in 2026: 33 solo tackles, 39 assists (72 combined) and 4 forced fumbles through 7 games, with a 17-tackle, 7-solo outing against Arizona as his season high. He’s not the market favorite — that’s Houston’s Will Anderson Jr. (7.5 sacks, 10 TFL) after Myles Garrett’s knee injury opened the door — but Warner’s tackle volume is more than double Anderson’s (71-plus to 32) and he’s doing it as the signal-caller for a defense that helped carry San Francisco to a 6-1 start. If voters lean toward complete, every-down impact over pure pass-rush pressure, Warner’s the pick.

T.J. Watt (LB, Steelers)

• Season Stats: 17 tackles, 5.5 sacks, FF, FR, INT, TD

Fred Warner (LB, 49ers)

• Season Stats: 72 tackles, 0.5 sacks, 4 FF, 3 PD

Will Anderson Jr. (DE, Texans)

• Season Stats: 28 tackles, 7.5 sacks, FF, FR, PD

2026-27 NFL Defensive Player of the Year Sleepers

Rousseau opened the season with 6 sacks in his first three games — the most by any Bills player through three games in franchise history and just the third streak of three straight two-sack games in NFL history (joining Mark Gastineau and Kevin Greene) — and sits at 6 sacks, 21 tackles and 3 forced fumbles for a Buffalo defense on a 5-1 team. Simmons is the one who just got a major boost to his case: Tennessee traded him to Chicago on Thursday (Bears gave up two future first-round picks for him), pulling him off a 1-6 Titans team and dropping him into a 5-2 contender alongside Montez Sweat and Grady Jarrett. He already leads all defensive tackles in pressures (28) and ranks top of his position in production against double teams, but voters tend to reward players on winning teams with real stages — and Simmons just traded a lost season in Nashville for a playoff-caliber defensive front in Chicago, which should only raise his visibility and his numbers the rest of the way.

Greg Rousseau (LB, Bills)

• Season Stats: 21 tackles, 6 sacks, 3 FF, 5 PD

Jeffrey Simmons (DL, Bears)

• Season Stats: 34 tackles, 4 sacks, FF, FR, 3 PD

NFL Defensive Player of the Year Past Winners

Here is a list of the past NFL Defensive Player of the Year winners.

• 2025 – Myles Garrett (DE, CLE)
• 2024 – Patrick Surtain II (CB, DEN)
• 2023 – Myles Garrett (DE, CLE)
• 2022 – Nick Bosa (DE, SFO)
• 2021 – T.J. Watt (LB, PIT)
• 2020 – Aaron Donald (DT, LAR)
• 2019 – Stephon Gilmore (CB, NWE)
• 2018 – Aaron Donald (DT, LAR)
• 2017 – Aaron Donald (DT, LAR)
• 2016 – Khalil Mack (LB, OAK)
• 2015 – J.J. Watt (DE, HOU)