2025 NFL Honors: Your Eagles Finalists
It will be just a few days until the Eagles play the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl 59.
There’s one last night to recognize the NFL’s greatest players throughout the regular season: NFL Honors.
PHOTO: Kirby Lee/Imagn Images
18 weeks of agendas and storylines come to an end. Will Josh Allen finally thwart Lamar Jackson from winning another MVP?
When the Eagles made the Super Bowl in 2022, they had several finalists, including Jalen Hurts for OPOY and MVP. Multiple other names received votes, including Brandon Graham, A.J. Brown, and Haason Reddick, all of whom ultimately lost out on their potential end-of-season award.
Below, we’ll take a look at tonight’s 8 Awards and the finalists for each award.
Assistant Coach of the Year
The last time the Eagles made the Super Bowl, Shane Steichen was nominated for assistant coach of the year. However, both Steichen and Gannon were poached for head coaching positions after Super Bowl 57.
The Eagles won’t have to worry about the Assistant Coach of the Year being poached to a new team this year.
Below are the finalists:
- Joe Brady // Bills OC
- Brian Flores // Vikings DC
- Vic Fangio // Eagles DC
- Aaron Glenn // Lions DC
- Ben Johnson // Lions OC
Fangio is the only coordinator this season who is a finalist for assistant coach of the year while being on his first year with said team.
Being able to transform the Eagles defensive unit from one of the worst in the league (thanks Matt Patricia) to one of the best in just a single offseason shows how bad of a situation the Eagles were in after the Jonathan Gannon tampering incident.
If a full flip in defensive rankings isn’t impressive enough to win the award over 4 coordinators who have been established with their teams. Then wait till you see the coach of the year finalists.
Coach Of The Year
I guess going 4/4 on making the playoffs, having a 48-20 coaching record, and having your second 14-3 season in three years isn’t good enough for Nick Sirianni to be a finalist for coach of the year.
- Kevin O’Connell // Vikings
- Dan Campbell // Lions
- Sean Payton // Broncos
- Dan Quinn // Commanders
- Andy Reid // Chiefs
Either Campbell or Reid will win Coach of the Year. Both have been at the top of their conference the last few years.
Or Dan Quinn and Kevin O’Connell, who made the playoffs with rosters that most people didn’t expect to be as competitive as they ended up being.
Comeback Player of the Year
Comeback player is a rocky award to give out every year. In 2022, Brandon Graham was coming off a ruptured Achilles the year prior and finished the season with a career-high in sacks. Of course, that meant the award would go to Geno Smith, who wasn’t coming off an injury.
Just a decade of mediocre quarterback play before being installed as the Seahawks starter on one of the league’s most explosive offenses with Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf.
Below are the comeback Player of the Year finalists:
- Sam Darnold // Vikings
- Joe Burrow // Bengals
- J.K. Dobbins // Chargers
- Christian Gonzalez // Patriots
- Damar Hamlin // Bills
It seems evident among these nominees that Sam Darnold will win tonight. The Vikings’ season was written off after J.J. McCarthy was injured in the preseason.
But with an anomalous year out of Sam Darnold and an unconvincing 14-3 record. It’s the exact scenario that saw Geno win just two seasons ago.
Defensive Player of the Year
Now, we’re getting into the awards that are always given to certain position groups.
DPOY almost always goes to the league leader in sacks, so Nick Bosa, T.J. Watt, and Myles Garrett are perennial finalists for this award.
- Zack Baun // Eagles
- Myles Garrett // Browns
- Trey Hendrickson // Bengals
- Pat Surtain II // Broncos
- T.J. Watt // Steelers
The Eagles went out on a limb to sign Zack Baun to a 1-year, $3.5M contract this offseason. And it seems to have paid off. Finishing the regular season 3rd in the league in solo tackles (82). Baun set a career-high of 151 total tackles(121 more than his last high), 3.5 sacks, 1INT, 5 forced fumbles, and 3 recoveries.
There’s a big offseason ahead for the Eagles, as Tom Brady named Baun his Defensive Player of the Year, and they might end up in a bidding war with the Raiders if they wish to keep him in Philly.
While it’s not certain that Baun will win DPOY tonight, enough media attention circling his way could suggest an upset over Trey Hendrickson, who finished the season with 17.5 sacks.
Defensive Rookie of the Year
Jalen Carter might’ve missed out on winning his DROY campaign (again, thanks, Matt Patricia).
The Eagles made sure to come away from the 2024 draft with home run picks that have found themselves fighting against another NFC team with two finalists for DROY:
- Cooper DeJean // Eagles
- Quinyon Mitchell // Eagles
- Braden Fiske // Rams
- Jared Verse // Rams
- Chop Robinson // Dolphins
DeJean’s campaign in the regular season might be part of why he isn’t receiving more attention as a DROY finalist, missing multiple games of playing time as Avonte Maddox was the starting nickel corner for the opening few weeks of the season. And that’s why all eyes shift to Quinyon.
Taking over for James Bradberry after the disastrous end of last season left some concerns for fans about what the defense could possibly look like. But 17 Weeks of going up against some of the league’s best receivers in Nabers, Nacua, Chase, and Lamb saw Quinyon only give up 40 receptions, or only 2.35 a game.
The interceptions might not have come until the postseason. But Mitchell is one of the league’s standout defensive rookies for a corner.
Offensive Player of the Year
- Saquon Barkley // Eagles
- Ja’Marr Chase // Bengals
- Joe Burrow // Bengals
- Derrick Henry // Ravens
- Lamar Jackson // Ravens
OPOY is the award you’ll see go to a non-QB while having multiple QBs as the finalists. If I had to guess, voting would come down to Ja’Marr Chase or Saquon Barkley.
Chase finished the regular season with the receiving triple crown: 127 receptions, 17 touchdowns, and 1,708 receiving yards. Of course, the Bengals’ defense was a sieve, so they were always in a position to throw the ball a lot.
Saquon, on the other hand, finished the year with 2,005 rushing yards. Becoming just the 9th member to pass the 2,000-yard milestone. With multiple games of over 200 rushing yards and even over 300 total yards against the Rams in Week 12. It’s no surprise that Barkley was given nominations for both OPOY and MVP.
Offensive Rookie of the Year
The Eagles offense hasn’t added many rookies since DeVonta Smith’s rookie campaign, and if they have. I don’t see them handing this award to any offensive linemen anytime soon.
The finalists for Offensive Rookie Of The Year:
- Jayden Daniels // Commanders
- Bo Nix // Broncos
- Brock Bowers // Raiders
- Malik Nabers // Giants
- Brian Thomas Jr. // Jaguars
Once again, it’s another award that goes to the most popular QB. But when a rookie QB throws for 3,568 yards, he rushes for 891. The media will do its victory laps to make sure the point is made, just like they did when Daniels overcame a stale Kenny Pickett-led offense in Week 16.
While Daniels will most likely walk away with the OROY award tonight, Brock Bowers’ impressive season can’t be overlooked. 1,194 receiving yards from a rookie TE who had Aidan O’Connell and Gardner Minshew as his Quarterback for 17 weeks? Bowers holds the record for most yards by a TE in his rookie season. Surpassing Mike Ditka, Kyle Pitts, and Sam LaPorta. The future will be bright in Vegas as long as they can figure out a quarterback.
Most Valuable Player
The NFL’s MVP award has been awarded to a quarterback for the last 11 seasons. Aaron Rodgers, Lamar Jackson, and Patrick Mahomes all lead that conversation.
But 12 years ago, the last MVP award went to a non-QB: Adrian Peterson, for his 2,097 rushing yards in his season with the Minnesota Vikings.
Below are the finalists for the NFL Most Valuable Player:
- Saquon Barkley // Eagles
- Josh Allen // Bills
- Lamar Jackson // Ravens
- Jared Goff // Lions
- Joe Burrow // Bengals
Saquon might have the best case to overthrow the QBs for this award. Hitting the 2,000-yard milestone puts him in an elite group. Single-handedly keeping the Eagles in multiple games throughout the regular season, as well as being responsible for 442 rushing yards in the Eagless’ three playoff games leading up to Super Bowl LIX.
However, for 17 weeks, the conversation has been between Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson on who could lead their team to the Super Bowl and beat Patrick Mahomes (spoiler, neither of them did).
- Allen – 3,731 yards, 28TD, 6INT, 531 rush yards, 12 rush TD
- Jackson – 4,172 yards, 41TD, 4INT, 916 rush yards, 4 rush TD
While the Bills might’ve been expected to take a step back this offseason amidst cap issues and losing Stefon Diggs, the Ravens were supposed to go all the way this season. Adding Derrick Henry to an already-stacked roster should’ve pushed them over the top. But at the end of the day, only the Bills managed to beat the Chiefs in the regular season before losing to them in the AFC Championship Game.
Which players do you hope will walk away with extra hardware in their trophy cabinet tonight?
PHOTO: Kirby Lee/Imagn Images
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