MVP
Josh Allen, QB, Buffalo Bills. Take your pick between transcendent quarterbacks: Allen or Lamar Jackson. Neither answer is wrong. I edge towards Allen here, for the sole reason that he hasn’t won the award before. That’s not right; it’s not fair. But it’s the only way to split the fine margins between the two.
Jackson has the stronger statistical case. Allen’s is based on numbers and vibes. He sanded the rough edges off his game this year, allowing the Bills to lean into their powerful run game before he donned his cape in crucial moments.
Related: Then and now: how do the Eagles and Chiefs compare to 2023’s Super Bowl?
In a pass-heavy offense, Allen’s numbers may have been even more eye-popping. But by embracing a new style, Allen was able to pilot the most efficient, effective offense of his career.
Most electric player of the season
Saquon Barkley, RB, Philadelphia Eagles. Thank you, football gods, for delivering us a healthy Barkley season behind the best run-blocking line in the league. Every Barkley carry this season has been an adventure. You don’t know what’s coming; you just prepare to be amazed. It could be leaping backward over a defender, making a would-be tackler tumble out of his cleats, or slithering through the smallest of gaps before darting away for a 50-yard score. Even without the ball, Barkley has been must-see TV, flattening pass-rushers in protection. But it’s his home-run threat that has sparkled this year. Barkley has 11 rushing touchdowns of 60-plus yards in the regular season and postseason, putting him second all-time behind Adrian Peterson. Not even Jim Brown ripped off chunk plays at this clip.
After the era of Running Backs Don’t Matter, Barkley has proven that handing the ball to the most explosive athlete on the field is still the most thrilling sight in the sport.
Defensive player of the year
Zack Baun, LB, Philadelphia Eagles. Typically, this honor goes to a pass-rusher with the highest sack total or a defensive back who has notched double-digit interceptions. But it’s time to reward someone for their overall defensive impact.
No defender has made a greater difference to a unit than Baun. He may not be the best player on the Eagles’ all-world defense, but he is the most important.
Philly’s do-everything linebacker allows the Eagles to fudge matchups in a way no one else at his position can replicate, elevating the defense against the run, in pass coverage and rushing the passer. The Eagles overhauled their defense midseason because of Baun’s versatility along the line of scrimmage and his gift for sinking into coverage, unlocking their talent up front, and freeing up their rookies in the secondary to play fast and physically. If you want to go by the figures, Baun’s stand up with anyone’s. He led the league in run stops and tackles for a loss in the regular season, forced two fumbles and grabbed two interceptions. Not bad for a former special teams ace the Eagles took a $1m flier on last offseason.
Rookies of the year
Offensive: Jayden Daniels, QB, Washington Commanders
Defensive: Jared Verse, Edge, Los Angeles Rams
Outside Magic Johnson, no rookie, in any US sport, has had as profound an impact on a franchise as Jayden Daniels on the Commanders. He ended the franchise’s playoff drought and transformed the entire tenor of the long-moribund franchise. The Commanders are fun! You can root for the Commies again! Dan Snyder is sad! If a redraft was held today, Daniels would go No 1 overall.
Defensively, Rams edge-rusher Jared Verse runs away with it. Verse became one of the most dominant pass-rushers in the league, on a team screaming out for some oomph up front. Verse finished the season first in total pressures, sixth in pressure rate and eighth in pass-rush win rate among all pass-rushers this season. In the past 15 years, only Micah Parsons and Myles Garrett have cracked the top eight in all three categories as rookies.
NFL Films clip of the year
Are you ready to run through a brick wall? No? Here’s Dan Campbell.
“I swear to God I’m not a lunatic,” says a man who starts his day with the equivalent of 10 cans of Red Bull. This is Campbell at his best, delivering a blistering speech, where he nearly breaks into tears, about how he is using scientific data to build out his practice schedule. “All I think about is you guys,” Campbell barks at his players. “That’s all I think about.”
If the Detroit Lions cannot win a Super Bowl with Campbell, they may never win one at all.
Play of the year
Speaking of the Lions. It doesn’t get sweeter than hitting a trick play for a touchdown against your soon-to-be employer.
How much did the Bears add to their offer to Ben Johnson after he conjured up a fake fumble for a touchdown?
Johnson has been the architect of some of the league’s best trick plays in Detroit. He was also responsible for putting the Lions’ season in the hands of Jameson Williams on " target="_blank" class="link"> a disastrous trick shot against the Commanders in their divisional round loss. Maybe he will save his finest trickeration in Chicago for when it matters most.
Coach of the year
Dan Quinn, Washington Commanders. Kevin O’Connell, Sean Payton, Andy Reid and Campbell would all be worthy choices. But Quinn should be the pick. Remember, Quinn was not even Washington’s first choice when they hired him as head coach last offseason. They had their eyes set on Johnson in Detroit before pivoting to the former Cowboys defensive coordinator.
A year on, Quinn led the franchise to within a game of the Super Bowl. The bulk of the credit for the team’s postseason run goes (fairly) to Daniels, but it was Quinn who signed off on drafting the rookie and chose to pair his new quarterback with Kliff Kingsbury, the team’s offensive play-caller. Quinn has also undergone a Sean McDermott-esque makeover, converting from a defense-first, conservative head coach in Atlanta into a born-again, ultra-aggressive head coach in Washington.
Quinn’s penchant for going for it on fourth down allowed the Commanders to dictate the flow of games. He recognized his rookie QB was special – and that his defense was so-so – and opted to put the ball in the hand of his best player to decide close games. Without Quinn’s in-game management and his schemed-up, feisty pass-rush the Commanders would not have won 12 regular-season games or enjoyed their playoff run.
Assistant coach of the year
Vance Joseph, defensive coordinator, Denver Broncos. It’s a loaded slate of assistant coaches this season. Brian Flores’ confuse-and-clobber defense was key to the Vikings’ 14-win season. Joe Brady helped reorient the Bills offense around their rushing attack, allowing Allen to have the strongest season of his career. Vic Fangio turned the Eagles’ defense from a laughingstock into the most fearsome unit in the league. But the underrated Joseph deserves his flowers.
Quick test: name five starters on the Broncos’ defense. After Patrick Surtain II, who do you have? Nik Bonitto? Zach Allen? What about the starting linebackers?
Joseph built a nasty, creative, deep defense out of mostly castoffs and afterthoughts. Alex Singleton and Justin Strnad, journeymen linebackers, flashed as stars in Joseph’s set-up. Safeties PJ Locke and Brandon Jones were as impactful as any safety tandem outside Detroit. Thanks to a wonky, blitz-happy scheme and the individual brilliance of Allen, Surtain and Bonitto, Denver finished the season first in quarterback pressure rate, sack percentage and defensive touchdowns.
Joseph’s attack-minded group finished the season first in the league in EPA/play, the best single measure of a unit’s down-to-down effectiveness. Joseph turned unheralded players into legitimate stars. Few coaches are better at mixing and matching their plan against specific opponents, or slotting players into specific roles that help the scheme sing.
Surreal moment of the year
Let’s go to Week 8 and the Hail Mary that changed everything. " target="_blank" class="link"> Jayden Daniels hitting a 52-yard buzzer beater to Noah Brown still sits as one of the sliding doors moments of the season. The Bears were up 15-12 before the last-second Daniels-to-Brown connection. They had won three games in a row leading up to the trip to Washington, while the Commanders were still just fun upstarts. What if the ball was batted down or didn’t fall to Brown? Would the legend of Daniels In The Clutch have been born? Would the Bears, now riding a four-game winning streak, have limped to an extra win or two? What would that have meant for head coach Matt Eberflus, who Chicago fired before the end of the regular season? Would Johnson still be in Detroit, or would he now be the head coach of the Raiders or Jaguars.
It was such a manifestly amazing/stupid/perfect ending. Ultimately, it wound up encapsulating both teams. The Bears flubbed their lines in a big moment, as they often did under Eberflus. Jayden Daniels was the calmest person in the building, finding any way to win a tight game.
Quote of the year
“It’s not like we have the first pick in the draft. We’re at No 10, as I recall right now. What are we? No 9? Excuse me, it was No 10 before,” – New Orleans Saints general manager Mickey Loomis.
Blink and you may have missed this one. But that’s the Saints general manager in his end-of-year, what-went-wrong press conference forgetting where his 5-12 team will pick in the upcoming draft.
The Saints may have the bleakest medium-term outlook in the league, which is why coaching candidates have run for the hills when Loomis has come calling. Loomis has driven the Saints into salary cap hell. He’s bungled head coach searches. His draft record since 2017 has been abysmal. That’s left the team’s roster looking old, injury-riddled and lacking talent. Despite his mismanagement, Loomis has clung to power in New Orleans and is now tasked with picking a new head coach and overseeing a rebuild.
Asked why a coach would want the Saints job given the circumstances, Loomis responded: “There’s 32 teams and we’re one of them.” Apparently, that is not actually enough. One coach turned down the job and two others withdrew their names from consideration, in part because they would be working for Loomis and his brand of cap shenanigans. Yikes.
Unless Loomis can cobble together a stellar draft class this offseason, the Saints will be staring down years in the wilderness. Here’s hoping the team’s general manager figures out where they’re picking.
