Gaffney's 2025 NFL Season Awards

With the NFL regular season at its end, now is as good a time as any to look ahead to the NFL Honors ceremony and go over this year's award winners. Sure, some races like DPOY and DROY seem pretty safe bets, but there are compelling arguments for options in the MVP, Coach of the Year, and OPOY races, speciffically. With the NFL Playoffs now only a few days away, here are my selections for the main slate of 2025 Season awards.

Assistant Coach of the Year - Brian Flores

More so out of principle than because of his year, which was still very good, Brian Flores continues to show how asinine it is that he isn't a head coach again. His Vikings defense, which notably lost standout defensive back Cam Bynum in the offseason and had major questions in the secondary coming into this year, finished as the No. 2 pass defense in the league and led the NFL in pressure rate at 41.2%. In total, they ranked No. 3 in yards and No. 7 in points per game, and outside of their loss to the Chargers, it's tough to place any real blame on Flores for how things turned out this year in Minnesota. There aren't 30 better outright coaches in the sport right now, and it's a disgrace if he isn't a head coach by the time the new league year rolls around.

Comeback Player of the Year - Christian McCaffrey

Hard to really argue this one. McCaffrey, after Achilles tendonitis and a PCL injury against the Bills limited him to just four games last year, came back with a purpose in 2025 with 1202 rushing yards and 924 receiving yards, the latter being good for the 23rd most in football. It would also be tough to leave out that his 311 carries are the most of his career.

Offensive Rookie of the Year - Tetairoa McMillan

Coming from someone lower on him than most coming out of Arizona, Tet McMillan becoming a legit No. 1 target this quickly, and not to mention a 1000-yard guy, for the Carolina Panthers offense is a big reason why they'll be hosting a playoff game this Saturday afternoon. McMillan officially ended his rookie year as one of just 12 players league-wide with 70 grabs, seven touchdowns, and at least 1000 receiving yards, a list that includes names like Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Puca Nacua, and Ja'Marr Chase—some really good company.

Defensive Rookie of the Year - Carson Schwesinger

Chalk this up as another easy award to determine, but the first of two when it comes to Cleveland Browns defenders (spoiler). Carson Schwesinger, as a rookie linebacker, finished the year as a top 10 player in tackles and stops, and was one of a dozen off-ball linebackers to get multiple interceptions. The drop-off from him to Seahawks rookie safety Nick Emmanwori and Falcons EDGE James Pearce Jr. is significant, and neither of those other players had bad years by any stretch. That's how good Schwesinger was, who legitimately has an All-Pro case for himself in year one.

Coach of the Year - Kyle Shanahan

As everything around him was falling apart at the seams throughout 2025, Kyle Shanahan by hook or by crook legitimately had the San Francisco 49ers in play for the NFC's top playoff seed going into the final week of the year. Although the 9ers fell short, the fact that they were even close to that position, to me, is a huge credit to Shanahan. Brock Purdy, Trent Williams, and George Kittle were out of the lineup at various points this year offensively. Fred Warner and Nick Bosa both suffered season-ending injuries on defense, and despite losing some key players through free agency like Talanoa Hufanga, Maleik Collins, Charvarius Ward, and, effectively, Brandon Aiyuk, this team kept trucking along. There are some good "story" picks like Mike Vrabel and Ben Johnson, but there was simply no better coaching job in the 2025 season than Shanahan.

Offensive Player of the Year - Bijan Robinson

A crowded group for this year's OPOY award, if there ever was one. Jaxon Smith-Njigba is by far and away the betting favorite as of today, but we lean with the NFL's leader in scrimmage yards this year, Falcons running back Bijan Robinson. Although he was just two yards shy of becoming the 12th player ever to put up 2300 scrimmage yards in a season, his seven games of at least 150 scrimmage yards level him with Saquon Barkley from a year ago. Also hard to forget Robinson's two monster outings on Monday Night Football against the Bills and Rams, respectively, where he totaled 467 yards and three touchdowns on 52 touches. Probably not going to win in reality, but he'd have my vote, and he was money for Atlanta down the stretch as they had nothing to play for.

Defensive Player of the Year - Myles Garrett

Expect anyone different? Most sacks by any player in an NFL season, and Myles Garrett secured 23 sacks in over 100 fewer pass rush snaps than it took Michael Strahan to hit 22.5 in the '01 season, and close to 200 fewer than T.J. Watt needed to hit 22.5 in '21. Something to keep in mind in an era when there's an extra game compared to years past. Also factoring in, Garrett led the way this year on the tackles for loss front with 33, and according to NextGenStats, he only trailed Maxx Crosby and Byron Young among edge rushers in "stops" this year with 55—a banner year in what will ultimately make him just the ninth player ever to win DPOY multiple times.

Most Valuable Player - Drake Maye

Both Matt Stafford and Drake Maye have compelling and good arguments for this year's MVP award, and regardless of the borderline insane #discourse that's arisen in this debate nationally the last several weeks on either side of the fence, either would be a good winner. That said, I lean with New England's second-year gunslinger, who had a historically great sophomore campaign, bringing a team that was 4-13 and picking top five in the draft to a division title, while individually becoming one of the most prolific deep ball throwers and playmakers league-wide.

As infuriatingly dumb as the schedule argument that's been used against Maye this year, which, spoiler, he had no control over, it'd be important to bring up that Maye and Stafford had games against six common opponents, and were on just about equal footing as passers in those games. One argument that certainly helps Maye in any event is what's been around him this year. Not that Stefon Diggs, Hunter Henry, and Kayshon Boutte haven't been adequate for him, but his offensive line statistically gave up a ton of pressure this year (only Justin Herbert was pressured more). Maye's numbers under pressure this year were otherworldly: 10 TDs, 3 INTs, 1424 yards on 99 completions, and league-leading marks in completion percentage, completion percentage over expected, EPA, and EPA per play.

The other advanced numbers argument I have is, according to rbsdm.com, and their method of calculating EPA/EPA per play, Maye is the 17th quarterback since 2004 to put up a total EPA north of 200, and an EPA per play north of 0.30 in a season. A quarterback who's done so has won MVP in each instance dating back to Peyton Manning in 2013, and excluding years where multiple QBs did so (2011, 2018, 2020), Tom Brady hitting those marks in 2012 is the only time that didn't lead to an MVP win since at least 2004, which, famously, was the Adrian Peterson MVP season.

This is definitely a race that's closer than most on either side of the argument would like to admit, just by simply observing things online, and although Stafford finally getting an MVP would objectively be a great story in the twilight of his career, it's gotta be Maye this year if I had to choose.

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