AUBURN, Ala. – Adding national honors to his regional recognition, Auburn sophomore safety Eric Winters has been selected as the Bronko Nagurski National Defensive Player of the Week by the Football Writers Association of America, the FWAA announced Wednesday.
Winters, who secured Auburn’s season-opening victory with a game-saving tackle, earned Southeastern Conference Co-Defensive Player of the Week honors on Monday.
Winters’ textbook takedown of Baylor tight end Matthew Klopfenstein inches from the goal line negated the Bears’ two-point attempt in the final 10 seconds and preserved Auburn’s 17-16 win Saturday in the Aflac Kickoff Game in Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
“We were prepared for it,” Winters said. “Once I saw him go, I went too. As soon as he caught the ball, I wrapped him up.”
“Eric Winters was absolutely huge there at the end,” head coach Alex Golesh said.
In his second career start, Winter’s late-game heroics capped a standout performance that featured 11 tackles and two tackles for loss, both career highs. The 6-foot, 215-pounder from Enterprise, Alabama, also recorded his first career forced fumble to end Baylor’s opening possession.
Winters is the first Auburn defensive back with 11 or more tackles and 2.0 or more tackles for loss since Jeremiah Dinson in the 2019 season-opening win over Oregon.
Auburn has now won 10 consecutive season openers and is 19-2 in openers since 2006.
Each week during the regular season, the FWAA has selected a Bronko Nagurski National Defensive Player of the Week since 2001. The FWAA and the Charlotte Touchdown Club will announce finalists for the 2026 Bronko Nagurski Trophy on Nov. 19.
The national defensive player of the year will be chosen from those finalists who are part of the 2026 FWAA All-America Team and presented with the trophy at the Bronko Nagurski Awards Banquet on Dec. 7 at the Charlotte Convention Center, and the winner will also be announced on The Home Depot College Football Awards live on ESPN on Dec. 11.
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on X: @jeff_shearer