The NFL has a lot of yearly awards, but none were for the offensive line.

That’s now changed.

The NFL will introduce the Protector of the Year Award, given to the league’s best offensive lineman, executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent announced Wednesday, per ESPN’s Brooke Pryor.. The panel, according to Pryor, will include a “number of former OL greats.”

Vincent credited Buffalo Bills offensive lineman Dion Dawkins and former NFL tackle Andrew Whitworth for being vocal about the idea.

In January, Dawkins made his case for why the NFL should have an award for offensive linemen.

“Offensive lineman don’t have awards for being great. There’s not a ‘Protector of the Year’ award. I’m knocking on so many doors now to get this award going,” he told reporters. I’m gonna head spear it and make sure this gets done before I’m done playing. Because there’s so many greats. So many greats. We have great quarterbacks, we have great running backs, we have rushing titles, we have quarterback passing titles. All of those titles are reflections of the O-lineman, which are the protectors.”

The NFL used to have the “Built Ford Tough Offensive Line of the Year,” which was given to a team’s OL. That stopped after the 2018 season.