With the 2024 regular season on the horizon, it’s time to fill out my awards ballot. I reviewed my picks after Week 4 and midway through the season, but with all 272 games now complete following the Lions’ blowout win over the Vikings on Sunday, let’s close our look at what we’ve seen throughout the season .

At least one race fell on the last game of the season. There was only one obvious winner among these various awards, and there were a handful where I could have easily justified picking the second or third place winner. This was a season with very narrow gaps between the best players and coaches. If you’re upset that your favorite player didn’t finish in first place, remember this.

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To be clear, these are my recommendations based on who I think should win the various awards. I’m using what I’ve seen and what the data suggests about this season, not who I think will do it win the actual awards when the league hands them out before the Super Bowl.

As usual, I will be handing out awards for Coach of the Year, Comeback Player of the Year, Offensive and Defensive Rookie of the Year, Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year and Most Valuable Player. As a bonus, I also have a few other awards with me. Who is the most underrated player in football? Who had the run of the season? And what was the league’s most unnecessary panic in 2024? I will also address these frivolities. I’ll start with an award that’s almost impossible to give out this season:

Jump to an award:
Most Valuable Player | Best coach
Offensive rookie | Defensive rookie
Offensive player | Defensive player
Comeback player | Fast racket

Coach of the Year

There are too many candidates here. Andy Reid should be seriously considered because he is 15-1 with his starters in Kansas City. Sean Payton got the Broncos to the postseason in a season where they were supposed to overcome Russell Wilson’s cap hit. Dan Quinn has the Commanders in the playoffs after the team had a 4-13 record under Ron Rivera a year ago. Sean McDermott rebuilt his defense and got the Bills to 13-4. And Mike Tomlin’s Steelers lost four games in a row at the end of the season, but still won ten games with Wilson and Justin Fields at quarterback.

None of them made it into the top three. It’s a brutal competition this season. One thing I tried to consider as a tiebreaker was how the coach’s ability directly impacted his team’s performance, as I mentioned in my awards columns earlier this season. The Commanders ranked fourth in points per drive on offense and 22nd on defense, hurting the candidacy of the defensive-minded Quinn. (The opposite was true for Payton and the Broncos.)