Hello and welcome back. As promised, I’m going to break down the NFL awards and give my picks for who should win them.
NFL awards
Offensive Player of the Year (OPOY): Jonathan Taylor, Cooper Kupp
Defensive Player of the Year (DPOY): T.J. Watt, Darius Leonard, Myles Garrett
Offensive Rookie of the Year (OROY): Rashawn Slater, Ja’Marr Chase
Defensive Rookie Of the Year (DROY): Micah Parsons
Coach Of the Year (COY): Kyle Shanahan, Rich Bisaccia, Bill Belichick
Comeback Player of the Year (CPOY): Dak Prescott, Joe Burrow
The best offensive player in the NFL has come down to a two-man race.
In years past, sometimes the best performing QB wins MVP while the second-best wins OPOY, but that seems unlikely this season. Not with the spectacular campaigns produced by Jonathan Taylor and Cooper Kupp.
Taylor led the NFL in rushing attempts. He led the NFL in rushing touchdowns. He was tied for the league-lead in yards per carry by qualifying running backs. He led the NFL in rushing by almost 600 yards.
Meanwhile, Kupp led the NFL in receptions. He led the NFL in receiving yards, with 300 more yards than the next player. He led the league in receiving touchdowns. He was only a few touches away from breaking Calvin Johnson’s single-season receiving yards record.
But I would pick Taylor as my OPOY.
Taylor was the focal point of his offense. When the Colts went 5-1 on a streak that nearly got them in the playoffs, he carried the offense on his back. Teams knew that Indianapolis was going to run with Taylor, and they still couldn’t stop him.
Kupp was stopped maybe once the entire season. But he was playing with a fringe MVP candidate at QB. His team has a plethora of weapons and a head coach that knows how to use them. Defenses couldn’t afford to focus all their attention towards Kupp for fear of someone else making plays against them. Like Van Jefferson, Tyler Higbee or, later in the season, Odell Beckham Jr.
Teams could afford to focus on Jonathan Taylor. They just couldn’t stop him.
Pick: Jonathan Taylor
The DPOY award was tough to predict until the final weeks of the season. Then it became obvious. T.J. Watt is going to win the award and it won’t be particularly close.
Watt led the league in sacks, tying Michael Strahan’s single-season sack record of 22.5. Watt did do it in a 17 game season, however he only played in 14 games. Although for what it’s worth, Strahan got all of his sacks in 13 games, so take from that what you will.
In any case, Watt was the Steelers’ defense at times.
The team led the NFL in sacks with 55, but take him away and Pittsburgh falls to 27th in the league, just ahead of the Texans and Jaguars. The Steelers paid Watt the big bucks at the end of last season. After what he did this year, if anything, that number was low.
Pick: T.J. Watt
I’ll get some more easy picks out of the way, starting with Micah Parsons.
The Cowboys rookie was stellar and looks like a shoo-in for the DROY award. As a rookie, Parsons tallied 84 total tackles, had 20 tackles for loss, had three forced fumbles, hit the QB 30 times and racked up 13 sacks. There are six-year vets in the league who would love to have a season like that.
Pick: Micah Parsons
Staying in Dallas, Dak Prescott seems like another run-away candidate.
Joe Burrow could put up some fight for the CPOY. Burrow made his ACL injury look irrelevant. He threw for 4,611 yards and 34 TDs, both top 10 in the NFL, while guiding the Bengals to their first playoff win in 30 years.
But, to put it bluntly, Prescott played better.
After suffering a compound fracture in his leg and dislocating his right ankle in week 5 of last season, he threw for 4,449 yards and 37 TDs and fewer INTs than Burrow. The Cowboys were upset, at home, by the 49ers, but the awards are for the regular season in which Prescott was excellent throughout. While Joe Burrow had some poor showings, especially in Cincy losses.
Pick: Dak Prescott
I really want Rashawn Slater to win OROY.
The rookie out of Northwestern has started at right tackle for the Chargers in every game this year. He’s played 100% of the offensive snaps available. He’s only been called for six penalties all season while PFF has credited him with allowing just four sacks.
But he’s an offensive lineman. And that’s not a position that usually wins awards.
Ja’Marr Chase seems like the hot pick. He received votes to be an All-Pro as a rookie. Plus he made the Pro Bowl. He finished fourth in the NFL in receiving yards with 1,455 and hauled in 13 scores, good for No. 3 in the NFL. Not to mention, he was second in the league in both yards per reception and yards per target.
But Chase had some spotty play too. He had eight games of under 55 yards and led the NFL in drops with 11.
My pick for OROY is Rashawn Slater, however, I am going to predict that Chase wins the award.
There are many strong candidates for COY but no dominant one.
I think Kyle Shanahan will end up winning the award, however. He had to deal with Jimmy Garappolo being in-and-out of the lineup. George Kittle missing several weeks. Several injuries to key players on his defense and in his running back room.
Yet the 49ers finished the season looking as good as any team in the league and beat the Cowboys in Dallas during Wild Card weekend.
Rich Bisaccia should present the biggest challenge to Shanahan.
The Raiders lost their head coach in week 5 and one of their ascending receivers in week 7. Darren Waller missed a ton of time, too. Bisaccia steered the ship to a 7-5 record and got Las Vegas to the playoffs for the first time since 2016. He became the first interim head coach to accomplish such a task since Bruce Arians in 2012.
Belichick should get a ton of credit for his job with the Patriots. I’d argue he deserves the Executive of the Year award for signing so many free agents who helped the Patriots reach the postseason. But the Pats faltered down the stretch and looked out of it too often.
Bisaccia absolutely deserves serious consideration for the award (and perhaps, the Raiders position as head coach) and I think the voting will be close. In the end, I’d pick Shanahan and predict the voters will go with him too.
