Chuck Bednarik Award

The Chuck Bednarik Award is presented annually to the defensive player of the year in college football as judged by the Maxwell Football Club to be the best in the United States. The award is named for Chuck Bednarik, a former college and professional American football player. Voters for the Maxwell College Awards are NCAA head college football coaches, members of the Maxwell Football Club, and sportswriters and sportscasters from across the country. The Maxwell Club is located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the presentations are held in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Club members are given voting privileges for the award.

Chuck Bednarik Award

Chuck Bednarik Award
Awarded for	College defensive player of the year
Country	United States
Presented by	Maxwell Football Club
History
First award	1995
Most recent	CB Travis Hunter, Colorado
Website	maxwellfootballclub.sportsengine-prelive.com/bednarik-award

Winners

	Made at least one Pro Bowl during career
	Inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame

Year	Player	Position	School	Draft	Ref
1995	Pat Fitzgerald	LB	Northwestern (2)	Undrafted
1996
1997	Charles Woodson	CB	Michigan	4th	[1]
1998	Dat Nguyen	LB	Texas A&M	85th
1999	LaVar Arrington	LB	Penn State	2nd
2000	Dan Morgan	LB	Miami	11th
2001	Julius Peppers	DE	North Carolina	2nd
2002	E. J. Henderson	LB	Maryland	40th
2003	Teddy Lehman	LB	Oklahoma	37th
2004	David Pollack	LB	Georgia	17th
2005	Paul Posluszny	LB	Penn State (3)	34th	[2]
2006
2007	Dan Connor	LB	Penn State (4)	74th
2008	Rey Maualuga	LB	USC	38th
2009	Ndamukong Suh	DT	Nebraska	2nd
2010	Patrick Peterson	CB	LSU	5th	[3]
2011	Tyrann Mathieu	CB	LSU (2)	69th	[4]
2012	Manti Te'o	LB	Notre Dame	38th	[5]
2013	Aaron Donald	DT	Pittsburgh	13th	[6]
2014	Scooby Wright III	LB	Arizona	250th	[7]
2015	Tyler Matakevich	LB	Temple	246th	[8]
2016	Jonathan Allen	DT	Alabama	17th	[9]
2017	Minkah Fitzpatrick	CB	Alabama (2)	11th	[10]
2018	Josh Allen	LB	Kentucky	7th	[11]
2019	Chase Young	DE	Ohio State	2nd	[12]
2020	Zaven Collins	LB	Tulsa	16th	[13]
2021	Jordan Davis	DT	Georgia (2)	13th
2022	Will Anderson Jr.	LB	Alabama (3)	3rd	[14]
2023	Payton Wilson	LB	NC State	98th
2024	Travis Hunter	CB	Colorado	2nd		[15]

See also

• Bronko Nagurski Trophy, a similar award given by the Football Writers Association of America