2025 Season Awards Tournament: OPOY, OROY, DPOY, COY (AFC FINAL FOUR)
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.
*Coach of the Year (any coach on the staff, not just the head coach)
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AFC CONFERENCE: 2025 Season Awards Tournament: Offensive Player of the Year
AFC EAST: QB Drake Maye, NE
AFC NORTH: RB Derrick Henry, BAL
AFC SOUTH: QB Trevor Lawrence, JAX
AFC WEST: QB Justin Herbert, LAC
Right off the bat, King Henry and Prince Trevor are ‘out’. They don’t belong in this level of discussion. I so want to give this to Justin Herbert, and I think he would have won it if his O-Line was healthy, yadda, yadda. But I’m going to honor Drake Maye here. He looked so good and had the numbers and wins and everything you want in an MVP.
AFC Conference Winner = QB Drake Maye, NE
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AFC CONFERENCE: 2025 Season Awards Tournament: Rookie of the Year
AFC EAST: RT Armand Membou, NYJ
AFC NORTH: TE Harold Fannin, CLE
AFC SOUTH: WR Chimere Dike, TEN
AFC WEST: RB Ashton Jeanty, LV
Wow, it feels like a very underwhelming year for ‘Rookies of the Year’. No obvious ‘baller’ from the group for a rookie season. Everyone on here has a case.
Jeanty was bottled up a lot this season, restricted by his bad team, never fully breaking out...but I respect that opposing teams built their game plans to stop him from snap #1 of the season. He still had a pretty nice season, statistically. 1,321 total yards and 10 total TDs on a garbage team.
Fannin had a big season, for a TE...but we should be used to this now...rookie TEs coming in and racking numbers. What Jeanty did was way more impressive.
Dike is the curveball here...the NFL leader in all-purpose yards is very impressive/impactful. Why shouldn’t he win it all for that achievement? But a lot of yards being return yards, but could we say that’s a harder way to get yards in some cases?
Membou is another curveball as he was a top 20 graded overall for OLs, as a rookie, for a few grading places...and that’s worth its weight in gold.
The more I look at it, knowing the head winds he battled, Jeanty had a really nice season and struck fear into all the opponent’s defensive plans.
AFC Conference Winner = RB Ashton Jeanty, LV
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AFC CONFERENCE: 2025 Season Awards Tournament: Defensive Player of the Year
AFC EAST: CB Christian Gonzalez, NE
AFC NORTH: CB D.J. Turner, CIN
AFC SOUTH: CB Derek Stingley, HOU
AFC WEST: CB Pat Surtain, DEN
Four CBs doing battle...all four had great seasons, obviously. All four have ‘the numbers/grades’. How to judge? Well, they’re all so good, I’ll go with my eyes/gut on what I saw this season.
So, Stingley out for me...I always see him covering deep mostly. Not all around/all over as much. The best in all-around coverage that I saw/remembered were Surtain and Turner.
When it comes down to it, how do you not give it to the consistent great in a close race?
AFC Conference Winner = CB Pat Surtain, DEN
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AFC CONFERENCE: 2025 Season Awards Tournament: Coach of the Year
AFC EAST: HC Mike Vrabel, NE
AFC NORTH: HC Mike Tomlin, PIT
AFC SOUTH: HC Liam Coen, JAX
AFC WEST: HC Jim Harbaugh, LAC
Not Tomlin.
Harbaugh did a helluva a job, but in the end...too many injuries left us hanging on just how good this team could’ve been and just how good a job Harbaugh was doing with the cards he was dealt.
Vrabel vs. Coen? You have to give it up to Vrabel by a nudge.
Actually, I’m going to change that...not to Coen, but to Harbaugh. How he got LAC that far with all those injuries and had there not been those injuries...LAC would have steamrolled to the #1 seed. Harbaugh did the BEST job of all these worthy coaches...and would have surpassed them all in wins had he not lost offensive lineman at such a devastating rate.
AFC Conference Winner = HC Jim Harbaugh, LAC
