SCU Awards: Final Results
Steel City Underground presents the 1st annual SCU Awards. Our panel of contributors all voted on various awards for the Steelers with the player getting the most votes being the winner. Each article has it’s own list of nominees with one of our contributors stating their case for why that player earned their vote and deserves the award. Comment and let us know if you agree or disagree with our winners and nominees.
Well this is it. The end of the road.
We’ve handed out a lot of different awards over the last few weeks, and there’s a lot of ground to cover, so we decided to put out an overall “review” article for those awards you may have missed.
Feel free to click on the links below to see the full vote totals along with commentary.
We also took fan votes, and will publish those later this week!
MVP: Le’Veon Bell
The winner of the Steelers MVP came down to the interpretation of the award. On one hand you have Le’Veon Bell, who during the Steelers winning streak was playing running back at a hall-of-fame worthy level of play. On the other hand you have Ben Roethlisberger, the leader of the Steelers and player the team lives and die with. Cases can be made for both of these players and both players are worthy of the honor.
Do you vote the player who played the best football or the player who’s absence would have the biggest impact on the team…
Offensive Player of the Year: Antonio Brown
The Steelers have one of the best offenses in the league. This is largely because the group of Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown, and Le’Veon Bell, also known as the 3 B’s, are the best trio in the league.
The Offensive Player of the Year came down to Bell and Brown, which shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody. These 2 players are both top tier at their position. They’re the type of players that keep defensive coordinators up at night because they are capable of changing a game with a single play.
Even when players on the offense kept getting struck with the injury bug, the 3 B’s helped keep this offense afloat. Both Brown and Bell had more than a handful of highlights and clutch plays throughout the season and both are deserving of this honor. The race was neck-and-neck.
Defensive Player of the Year: Ryan Shazier
A common misconception is that the Steelers have a bad defense. It’s unbelievable how many people on social media harp about how this is the worst Steelers defense in years. Sure the unit had a rough start to the season, but come mid-season the Steelers had one of the best defenses in the league.
The defensive player of the year nominees are players that represent the energy and leadership on the defense. Ryan Shazier and Mike Mitchell both bring fire to this defense with their speed and aggresive playing still, while James Harrison and Lawrence Timmons are reliable play-makers that lead this defense and are clutch.
Special Teams Player of the Year: Chris Boswell
The Steelers special teams unit has seen a lot of struggles over the recent years. For consecutive seasons they bounced around from punter to punter and even last year they had to try out multiple kickers once Shaun Suisham went down with an injury. We’ve finally reached a point of consistency with our specialist with Jordan Berry and Chris Boswell.
Both Boswell and Berry had great years with the Steelers, coming through in clutch moments and even winning games for the Steelers. Vince Williams shouldn’t be forgotten either. Arguably the heart and soul of special teams, Williams always finds himself around the ball and brings fire and intensity to special teams.
All 3 of these players are worthy candidates for Special Teams Player of the Year.
Most Improved Player of the Year: Alejandro Villanueva
The most improved player award is subjective: is it a new player who took a big leap this season?
A veteran who had a bounce-back season?
Maybe a player we always felt had potential, but for a variety of reasons, hasn’t lived up to that billing?
Our panel opined on several Steelers who all improved in 2016.
Underdog of the Year: Jesse James
There’s many ways to define an underdog: it could be a player who surprised people, a player who people had low expectations for, or a player that doesn’t get the appreciation they deserve.
The Steelers are a team built on underdogs. Players like Antonio Brown, a 6th round draft pick, fit the bill years ago. Plus, there are plenty of players on the team who contributed significantly, when many had low hopes for them.
Therefore, the comeback award was the tightest race of all SCU awards by far, with plenty of worthy contenders.
Rookie of the Year: Sean Davis
Over the past few seasons the Steelers Rookie of the Year award has been a pretty easy decision… not this year. The Steelers 2016 draft class had an exceptional year. Cases could be made for either of the top 3 draft picks to win this award for all 3 were essential to the defense during the team’s winning streak.
This wasn’t an easy decision and the winner came down to a single vote.
Comeback Player of the Year: Le’Veon Bell
The Steelers unfortunately dealt with a lot of injuries in the 2015 season. Both Le’Veon Bell & Maurkice Pouncey missed much, if not all, of the season due to their respective injuries.
Fortunately though, these players came back strong in 2016. Bell was a dominant running the ball while Pouncey opened holes for him and kept Ben clean. Both these players have overcome multiple injuries in their career yet continue to play high-level football.
Ryan Shazier also shouldn’t be forgotten. After being labelled a bust and “soft” by many due to missing multiple games in his career due to injury, Shazier stayed healthy in 2016 and was a leader on this defense.
All 3 of these players deserve commendation for their returns.
‘Over 30’ Player of the Year: James Harrison
Ridiculed for years for having an aging defense, the entire Steelers roster has undergone a transformation over several seasons, a “youth movement” if you will, to replace many of those former stars. However, the team still boasts a number of veteran players on both sides of the ball.
Regardless, Pittsburgh still has a handful of veteran players who are playing exceedingly well into their prime, and even some, who defy Father Time (such as James Harrison).
Our panel wasn’t all that mixed on who the best player “over 30” (years of age) was. Here are their thoughts:
SCU Awards: MVPs (from a female point of view!)
This was an awkward set of awards from a male point of view, but absolutely hilarious take on everything from “best hair” on down to the toes of the 2016 Steelers… from a female perspective!
Okay, you guys can join in too, but you’ve been warned: these “awards” are hardly based on football!
