Each year, I go division by division and nominate who I believe is each team’s candidate for the major NFL awards and then we discuss/declare who the division’s major award winner is for the season…and that player goes onto the divisional Final Four with a chance to go to the Super Bowl/Finals for a chance to be declared my seasonal award winner.
We go division-by-division each day, then to the Final Four for each conference, then the finals to name our winner the day the NFL announces their winners. *And my choices are usually different up and down the line in each category, so enjoy a different take on the NFL awards.
*MVP (any position, but usually offense)
**Coach of the Year (any coach on the staff, not just the head coach)
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NFC North: 2023 Season Awards Tournament: MVP
CHI: QB Justin Fields
DET: QB Jared Goff
GB: QB Jordan Love
MIN: WR Justin Jefferson
A battle of three QBs and a WR. It’s very difficult to give the nod to a WR over a QB, in general, for an MVP. If there’s a guy who could do it – it’s Justin Jefferson (or Tyreek). But considering that Jefferson missed a stretch of time midseason...it’s too hard to see him through to the end here, so he’s out and we’ll pick between the QBs.
Justin Fields has times where he looked amazing but then others where he’s a nonfactor and he just continues to lose more games than he wins, so Fields is out.
Jordan Love was up-and-down to start the season but finished very strong to get GB into the playoffs. By contrast, Jared Goff wasn’t up-and-down...he was steady bell-to-bell and ended up having top 3-5 numbers among all QBs, as a passer, for the season...but then I look and see that Love did too. They both had nice seasons, but the one guy who was most responsible for his team ‘winning’ games...I have to tip it to Jordan Love, surprisingly. I thought it was going to be Goff, but after going through this a little more – I feel like Love gets the nod. Maybe it’s just such a surprise from where he was to where he finished this season, this career (to date). And Goff had the better O-Line, run game support too.
NFC North Winner = QB Jordan Love, GB
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NFC North: 2023 Season Awards Tournament: Rookie of the Year
CHI: OL Darnell Wright
DET: RB Jahmyr Gibbs
GB: WR Jayden Reed
MIN: WR Jordan Addison
In the battle of the WRs, I lean it to Jayden Reed here...but I’m chuckling...chuckling at how SUPER important Jordan Addison was to people a year ago, pre-Draft. We LOVE rookies and rookie talk. Now, no one hardly cares about Addison or most of the 2023 rookies...gotta make way for LOVING the new 2024 rookies beyond belief.
Darnell Wright started every game for CHI and was good/solid. I’ll take Wright starting every game then a randomly OK/good WR like Reed.
Then it comes down to Gibbs...who the public feels better on because we ‘see’ Gibbs, we play Fantasy with Gibbs...but with Wright, we don’t even realize he’s an actual player in the league. But I’ll take a 17-game worker, good O-Lineman over a randomly fine, fast RB.
NFC North Winner = OL Darnell Wright
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NFC North: 2023 Season Awards Tournament: Defensive Player of the Year
CHI: DE Montez Sweat
DET: DE Aidan Hutchinson
GB: DT Kenny Clark
MIN: DE Danielle Hunter
Four very good defensive linemen to pick from. Kenny Clark is such an underrated DT, run stopper...but it’s hard to give him the push over the more tangible, flashier edge guys but also some top all-around EDGE players (which is rare)...so let’s kick Clark out of the contest and compare the EDGE guys.
It’s hard to choose between Hunter and Hutchinson...both had great seasons, but I’m going to give it to Montez Sweat anyway, so it doesn’t matter...because when he arrived to the Bears, he totally changed the dynamic of that defense and it became one of the best defenses in the league to finish the season...and DET, GB, and MIN defenses were not considered as such. Sweat’s Bears’ run after the trade was as good a defensive play/impact as there was in the league.
NFC North Winner = DE Montez Sweat, CHI
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NFC North: 2023 Season Awards Tournament: Coach of the Year
CHI: HC Matt Eberflus
DET: HC Dan Campbell
GB: HC Matt LaFleur
MIN: HC Kevin O’Connell
For different reasons, any one of these guys could get the nod.
The first guy I toss from consideration is Matt LaFleur. All credit to him for sticking by Jordan Love and getting this group to the playoffs. I could see him being some people’s full COY, but the Pack got hot late on an easier schedule and stumbled into the playoffs via tiebreaker. His postseason run doesn’t count here, or he might just have to win this. Just regular season-wise, it was a nice campaign...but it could've easily been that they missed the playoffs via the tiebreaker.
Kevin O’Connell is a great head coach, in my book...but he had a playoff team on his hands and then couldn’t make the Dobbs trade work (but it was working to a degree in Arizona) and things spiraled from there to out of the playoffs...so, I cut him from the running.
Matt Eberflus gets credit for coming so close to getting fired a few weeks into the season, and then saving himself with a later season run. Big credit for the turnaround but it was still a mediocre/letdown season.
Dan Campbell needs/deserves the honor...taking this dead franchise and breathing life into it and taking it to an NFC North title. It was a fine 2023, but this is honoring his 3-year process to get to this point too.
NFC North Winner = HC Dan Campbell, DET
The winners in each category move on to the conference finals to determine which of them goes onto the AFC v. NFC finals in each award category for the FFM named winners for 2023 season.
