The Kansas City Chiefs team MVP award is voted on by the players and fittingly called the Derrick Thomas award. And even more fitting, the man who beat DT's single-season Chiefs sack record won the award this year.
Justin Houston, who surpassed DT's franchise-record 20 sacks with his own 22 sacks last season, has been named the Chiefs team MVP. He was given the Derrick Thomas award at the 101 Awards in Kansas City on Saturday evening.
Houston is the most obvious MVP on a Chiefs team in a long, long time. There was no question who the best player on the team was as Houston nearly set the NFL record for sacks. Houston also won the Mack Lee Hill Award for rookie of the year after his rookie season in 2011.
This is what Houston's award looks like:
Justin Houston of course named team MVP pic.twitter.com/F8gf5b4lLB
— 610 Sports Radio- KC (@610SportsKC) February 28, 2015
Jamaal Charles has won four of the past five team MVPs.
Meanwhile, De'Anthony Thomas was also awarded as the team's rookie of the year. This was actually a closer decision because there was no obvious rookie of the year but DAT is a fine choice for this award, which is called the Mack Lee Hill award. DAT's numbers don't pop off the page with only 14 carries and 23 receptions but because of his speed he made an impact every time he stepped on the field, especially as the Chiefs started utilizing him more on fake sweeps and end arounds.
This is also cool on DAT. He was hurt the first six weeks of the same, the Chiefs slowly worked him in as a running back and then he became a jack of all trades receiver. Cool progression:
Look at how sharply DAT's "position" changed after week 11. Went from a HB to a jack of all trades WR. #Chiefs (PFF) pic.twitter.com/UeGJBtXfl4
— Chris Sembower (@ChrisSembower) February 28, 2015
Here's a shot of DAT getting his award:
Marcus Cooper was last year's Mack Lee Hill award winner.