The 2026 NFL Award Race

The 2025 NFL regular season has officially come to an end, and with the awards ceremony coming up soon, nominations for top picks for each category have been released. The categories are DROY, OROY, Comeback POY, Coach of the Year, and MVP.

The rookies this year were amazing, with no first-round picks proving to be a bad pick or a bust. The top three picks for DROY (Defensive Rookie of the Year) are James Pearce Jr., Edge, Atlanta Falcons; Abdul Carter, Edge, New York Giants; and Carson Schwesinger, LB, Cleveland Browns. Carson Schwesinger was the top pick for this award. Schwesinger made 15.3% of the tackles in Browns games, the sixth highest in the NFL. This was before hitting injured reserve with an injury entering Week 18. Schwesinger missed on only 6% of his tackle attempts, an amazing stat for a rookie and above average for most. Schwesinger did end up winning this award

For OROY (Offensive Rookie of the Year), the top picks were Jaxson Dart, QB, New York Giants; Tyler Warren, TE, Indianapolis Colts; and Tetiaroa McMillan, WR, Carolina Panthers. The top pick for this award is Tetiaroa McMillan. McMillan was the only rookie to finish over 1,000 rushing or receiving yards. He may have only had two games with over 100 receiving yards, but he was definitely the most consistent out of the three candidates. McMillan won this award convincingly.

There were many great candidates for CPOY (Comeback Player of the Year), the top three being Troy Fautanu, OT, Pittsburgh Steelers; Aidan Hutchinson, Edge, Detroit Lions; and Christian McCaffery, RB, San Francisco 49ers. Christian McCaffery came back this season after suffering an Achilles injury and dominated. He brought a 49ers team that had 23 injured players up to the second seed in one of the most dominant divisions in the NFL. Christian McCaffery won this award, which was well deserved.

For Coach of the Year, there were many great coaches; ESPN’s top picks for this award were Ben Johnson, Chicago Bears; Kyle Shanahan, San Francisco 49ers; and Mike MacDonald, Seattle Seahawks. Surprisingly, none of these coaches won. The award went to Mike Vrabel, New England Patriots. Vrabel turned around a terrible Patriots team. He brought the team from 4-13 in 2024 to 13-4 in 2025-26. Vrabel won this award proudly.

MVP, the biggest award of them all. The candidates for this award were Josh Allen, QB, Buffalo Bills; Matthew Stafford, QB, Los Angeles Rams; and Drake Maye, QB, New England Patriots. In the closest vote of the awards ceremony, Matthew Stafford came out on top by one vote. Drake Maye was great, but Stafford was definitely better. He threw for 313 more passing yards and 15 more touchdowns than Maye. Stafford also did this all while being in his 17th NFL season at 37 years old. Stafford deserved this award after being in the league for so long and always being consistent. All of these players really deserved these awards, and all worked so hard. This was one of the best award-winning classes in a long time.