The NFL Honors is a yearly award ceremony where players and coaches come together hoping to win an award that many players work and dream for every year but only 13 winners are picked.
Winners are evaluated based on their season performance and are voted by 49 anonymous votes from the NFLPA.
Over a dozen awards are presented, but the ones that people see as the most popular awards are MVP (most valuable player), Coach of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Offensive Player of the Year, and Defensive Player of the Year.
This year’s ceremony was held in New Orleans at Saenger Theater on Thursday, February 6.
The MVP is presented to the player that is seen as the most valuable player on their team and made the biggest impact in the league, and this year’s winner was Josh Allen. He defied the odds in winning his first MVP award while also becoming the third player in NFL history to receive it, despite not being named first-team All-Pro.
In many ways Allen played a crucial role in the Buffalo Bills winning 13 games and advancing to the AFC Championship Game.
The seventh-year quarterback made it a priority to turn over the ball less compared to all of his other seasons, while finishing with a career-low six interceptions and two fumbles. Those were the only turnovers the Bills offense had this season. He rushed for 12 touchdowns and threw for 28.
Freshman James Hanson 28’28 had mixed feelings toward his MVP winner.
“In my opinion I would have expected Lamar Jackson to win it as he had a better season than his MVP season last year and outplayed [Allen] in every stat this year,” Hanson said.
This year’s Coach of the Year is given to the coach that shows grit and exemplifies leadership while also bringing that team to a great season. With that, this year’s winner for Coach of the Year was Kevin O’Connel, head coach of the Minnesota Vikings. The Vikings entered 2024 projected to win 6.5 games, their lowest projected win total in a decade. The expectations for this year were lowered by a mass amount with the loss of quarterback Kirk Cousins with the move to Sam Darnold, while also drafting a rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy, in the first round, who wouldn’t play all season with injury. O’Connell encouraged players to look past those expectations that were set by people who didn’t believe in them, expressing his confidence that the team was in a better position to compete than the public eye understood and they would go on to finish this season with a 14-3 record while going to the playoffs.
Rookie of the Year is given to a rookie that came into the league and showed he belonged immediately by making a name for himself. Rookie of the Year is Washington Commanders rookie quarterback Jaden Daniels. Jaden put up 3.500 passing yards with 25 passing touchdowns and now holds two rookie records for highest passer rating and most rushing yards in a season by a rookie quarterback while also leading the commanders to a 12-5 record with a conference championship appearance in his first year.
Defensive Player of the Year is given towards the player that performed the best on field statistically and played exceptionally throughout the whole season. The winner for this year’s award was Denver Broncos cornerback Pat Surtain II. He is the 12th defensive back to win this award and was also named 1st team All Pro, which is only given to the best players at that position. Surtain II had 4 interceptions, 11 passes defended, a forced fumble, a recovery and a tackle for loss. This wasn’t the only spotlight of his game this year: he only targeted 10.9% of his coverage snaps this season while allowing a 46.6 passer rating, which was the lowest from all cornerbacks who took more than 500 snaps. He was able to hold top receivers in the league such as DK Metcalf, Mike Evans, Garrett Wilson, Ja’Marr Chase and many more to only 50 receiving yards or less.
