2025 Season Awards Tournament: OPOY, OROY, DPOY, COY (NFC 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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NFC CONFERENCE: 2025 Season Awards Tournament: Offensive Player of the Year
NFC EAST: QB Jaxson Dart, NYG
NFC NORTH: QB Caleb Williams, CHI
NFC SOUTH: LT Tristan Wirfs, TB
NFC WEST: WR Puka Nacua, LAR
Dart didn’t play enough games, and the team found all kinds of ways to lose games they were winning, to have a prayer to beat this top NFC group. Caleb Williams was the opposite...he always found a way to win games.
Wirfs had an excellent season, as usual. Arguably the top OL in all the NFL.
And Puka was surreal, again, this season. I could make a great argument for any of Caleb-Wirfs-Puka...or Stafford, who didn’t even make it this far (because of Puka).
I’m going to give it to Caleb Williams because he was single-handedly winning games for the team in the 4th-quarter of so many games...not a couple, a lot. If it were Patrick Mahomes who pulled off so many 2nd-half and 4th-quarter comebacks this (or any) season, they’d build a statue to him.
NFC Conference Winner = QB Caleb Williams, CHI
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NFC CONFERENCE: 2025 Season Awards Tournament: Rookie of the Year
NFC EAST: QB Jaxson Dart, NYG
NFC NORTH: OG Tate Ratledge, DET
NFC SOUTH: QB Tyler Shough, NO
NFC WEST: OG Grey Zabel, SEA
This is Dart vs. Zabel, for me. Shough was nice, but he’s no Dart.
Dart started 12 games and accounted for 15 passing TDs/2,272 passing yards and 9 rushing TDs. Extrapolate that to a 17-game season and you get: 21 pass TDs, 13 rush TDs...34 combined TDs, which would be one less total TD than Drake Maye...good for 5th in league with the fuzzy math.
Zabel was good but struggled early and then started to blossom late and really came on during the playoffs...but this is a regular season award. So, for that reason I give the slight nod to Dart.
NFC Conference Winner = QB Jaxson Dart, NYG
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NFC CONFERENCE: 2025 Season Awards Tournament: Defensive Player of the Year
NFC EAST: CB Quinyon Mitchell, PHI
NFC NORTH: LB Eric Wilson, MIN
NFC SOUTH: CB Jaycee Horn, CAR
NFC WEST: SAF Coby Bryant, SEA
Because I value the CB position above all for defense, this final four then comes down to Mitchell vs. Horn...and Quinyon had the much better cover ratings between them, with both having nice seasons.
NFC Conference Winner = CB Quinyon Mitchell, PHI
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NFC CONFERENCE: 2025 Season Awards Tournament: Coach of the Year
NFC EAST: HC Dan Quinn, WSH (for achievements in dereliction of duty)
NFC NORTH: HC Ben Johnson, CHI
NFC SOUTH: HC Dave Canales, CAR
NFC WEST: HC Kyle Shanahan, SF
Such a great field, except Quinn.
Three legit contenders...I don’t know how you pick between these three distinct, truly stunning coaching jobs.
If you go cheap and easy, you go by wins or division title...you just give it to Ben.
If you consider what the coaches had to overcome in 2025, it would go to Kyle Shanahan...mass injuries all season and they just kept winning.
If you consider pulling a true miracle...it’s Canales winning a division, somehow winning 8 games with Bryce Young. Canales had one arm tied behind his back all season.
In the end, I will give it to Ben Johnson...for the fact of the huge turnaround, the tough division no one thought they could even come close to winning, and for the job he did remaking the O-Line (that was him, not the GM).
NFC Conference Winner = HC Ben Johnson, CHI
