Former Atlanta Falcons player wins first ever USFL DPOY award

The USFL’s first regular season came to an end back on June 19th, and that was followed by the announcement of the winners of major individual awards and one former Falcons player took home the first-ever defensive player of the year award for the new league.

You may or may not recognize his name as he has had two separate stints with the Dirty Birds.

Former Falcons defensive end, Chris Odom, is the USFL’s defensive player of the year

Isn’t it ironic that a former Falcons player ends up winning defensive player of the year in the first year of a new league, something no Falcons player has ever done in the team’s history.

Chris Odom who plays for the Houston Gamblers took home the award for the best defender in the league with his 12.5 sacks.

Odom was a member of the Falcons for the 2017 offseason and then ended up back with the team for the 2019 offseason.

He has played in 11 games in his career, four with the Green Bay and seven with Washington, and has two sacks in his career, both of which came in the same game as he took down Kyle Allen of the Panthers a couple of times.

The USFL is now the fourth professional football league he has played with, those being obviously the NFL and USFL but also the CFL with the Calgary Stampeders and the AAF up until it went under with the Salt Lake Stallions.

There will probably be multiple USFL players who get calls from NFL teams and Odom certainly seems like a prime candidate, in fact, the Falcons might be smart to give him a third chance after his breakout season.

The other award winners were Most Valuable Player KaVontae Turpin of the New Jersey Generals, Offensive Player of the Year Darius Victor of the Houston Gamblers, and Coach of the Year Mike Riley of the Generals. So, the Generals had the MVP and the COTY, while the Gamblers had the OPOY and the DPOY.