Oregon State Football: Linebacker Avery Roberts Selected To Bednarik Award Watch List

Linebacker Avery Roberts, one of the anchors of Oregon State’s defense, received a huge honor on Monday when he was selected to the Bednarik Award preseason watch list, an accolade given each season to the top defensive player in all of college football.

Roberts was an All-Pac-12 team member last year, as he led the Pac-12 with 69 tackles, recording double-digit wrap-ups in four different contests, including a jaw-dropping 21-tackle game against Utah that ranks among the best individual showings in Beavers history.

For his career, Roberts has accumulated over 150 tackles, including 9.5 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks.

The Bednarik Award has been handed out annually since 1995, when Northwestern’s Pat Fitzgerald posted back-to-back seasons in which he claimed the accolade. Other notable winners of the award have included Michigan’s Charles Woodson (1997), North Carolina’s Julius Peppers (2001), Penn State’s Paul Posluzny (2005, 2006), Nebraska’s Ndamukong Suh (2009), LSU’s Tyrann Mathieu (2011), Notre Dame’s Manti T’eo (2012), Pittsburgh’s Aaron Donald (2013) and most recently Ohio State’s Chase Young (2019).