In a series of very odd votes (yes, two!), James Laurinaitis only came out with one vote for the defensive rookie of the year. The one single vote put him in 5th place in the voting.
Obviously, we are biased here, but it seems like Laurinaitis’s play in 2009 should warrant more than 1 vote. He played on a terrible team on a terrible defense and did not rack up many of the “sexy” stats that get voters attention: INTs or Sacks.
He was simply a quiet and solid contributor on a defense without many solid players. The Rams will take that any time, but unfortunately that will always get overlooked by the AP voters.