Last year J.J. Watt was the best player in football, period, yet he didn't even win the Defensive Player of the Year award.
Why?
Well, this is the NFL, and there's a natural tendency to associate greatness with wins. The Houston Texans could muster only two wins, and hence Watt -- who probably played even better last season than he did in 2012, when the Texans had 12 wins and he won DPOY going away -- was not deemed worthy.
The problem is, outside the quarterback position, there are no players, not even those as great as Watt, who can win games single-handedly on a consistent basis. Sure, they can do it on a one-off basis and they can certainly influence results, but if the team just isn't good enough, they will sit in the same losing locker room with every other player.
Interestingly, eight teams currently have three wins (including the Texans), and with the exception of the San Diego Chargers and Philip Rivers, none has a QB who has played particularly well. This will probably even itself out as we get deeper into the season, but for now, let's celebrate some of the non-QB impact players on the other seven three-win teams.