With three more weeks left in the NFL season, it’s almost time for the regular-season awards to be handed out. Every year, the Thursday before the Super Bowl, the league hosts their annual ‘NFL Honors’ award show to commemorate and announce who won its regular-season awards, such as MVP, Coach of the Year, and many others. The finalists for the Honors were announced yesterday. Let’s dive into the nominations for the prestigious awards!

NFL Honors’ Finalists

For every season that turns the NFL’s calendar, a new class of rookies takes the league by storm. Here are your rookies that make the final cut for the Offensive and Defensive Rookie of the Year awards!

Offensive Rookie of the Year

• Carolina Panthers‘ Wide Receiver: Tetairoa McMillan
• New Orleans Saints’ Quarterback: Tyler Shough
• Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Wide Receiver: Emeka Egbuka
• New England Patriots: TreVeyon Henderson
• New York Giants’ Quarterback: Jaxson Dart

Defensive Rookie of the Year

• Cleveland Browns’ Linebacker: Carson Schwesinger
• Atlanta Falcons’ Defensive End: James Pearce Jr.
• Atlanta Falcons’ Safety: Xavier Watts
• New York Giants’ Outside Linebacker: Abdul Carter
• Seattle Seahawks’ Safety: Nick Emmanwori

With all the great things players do, it’s so often that coaches get lost in the conversation, especially assistant coaches. For every great head coach, they all have an assistant who is equally important as the captain who steers the ship. Here are your finalists for the NFL’s Assistant Coach of the Year!

Assistant Coach of the Year

• Minnesota Vikings’ Defensive Coordinator: Brian Flores
• Seattle Seahawks’ Offensive Coordinator: Klint Kubiak
• Philadelphia Eagles’ Defensive Coordinator: Vic Fangio
• New England Patriots’ Offensive Coordinator: Josh McDaniels
• Denver Broncos’ Defensive Coordinator: Vance Joseph

In some instances, we have players suffer injuries and miss time. As sports fans, our hearts sink whenever we see a player go down because in the violent game of football, every snap could be the last and begin the road to a long recovery. Here are the finalists of this year’s Comeback Player of the Year!

Comeback Player of the Year

• Dallas Cowboys’ Quarterback: Dak Prescott
• San Francisco 49ers’ Running Back: Christian McCafferey
• New England Patriots’ Wide Receiver: Stefon Diggs
• Jacksonville Jaguars’ Quarterback: Trevor Lawrence
• Detroit Lions’ Defensive End: Aidan Hutchinson

Every season, we see the NFL’s best dominate on both sides of the ball, offensive and defensive. From spectacular catches to record-breaking defensive plays, a lot happened last year. With force multipliers on both sides of the ball, here are your finalists for the Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year awards!

Offensive Player of the Year

• Los Angeles Rams’ Wide Receiver: Puka Nacua
• Atlanta Falcons‘ Running Back: Bijan Robinson
• Seattle Seahawks’ Wide Receiver: Jaxon Smith-Njigba
• San Francisco 49ers’ Running Back: Christian McCaffrey
• New England Patriots’ Quarterback: Drake Maye

Defensive Player of the Year

• Green Bay Packers’ Outside Linebacker: Micah Parsons
• Cleveland Browns’ Defensive End: Myles Garrett
• Houston Texans’ Defensive End: Will Anderson Jr.
• Detroit Lions’ Defensive End: Aidan Hutchinson
• Denver Broncos’ Outside Linebacker: Nik Bonitto

In 2025, we saw many last-place teams turn into elite organizations, almost in the blink of an eye. The importance of a great head coach is never appreciated as much as it should be. With there being three first-year head coaches on the ballot, I can’t remember the last time this happened. Here are your finalists for the Coach of the Year award.

Coach of the Year

• Chicago Bears: Ben Johnson
• Jacksonville Jaguars: Liam Coen
• Seattle Seahawks: Mike Macdonald
• San Francisco 49ers: Kyle Shanahan
• New England Patriots: Mike Vrabel

Here is the award we’ve all been waiting for. The NFL’s most prestigious award. The MVP. The best player in the NFL this past season. In some seasons, the MVP race is nip and tuck through the regular season, and in others, a player blows it away. This year feels like a flip of a coin between two players. However, there are five finalists for the award, so here are your finalists for this year’s NFL MVP!

Most Valuable Player

• Los Angeles Rams’ Quarterback: Matthew Stafford
• New England Patriots’ Quarterback: Drake Maye
• Buffalo Bills’ Quarterback: Josh Allen
• San Francisco 49ers’ Running Back: Christian McCaffrey
• Jacksonville Jaguars’ Quarterback: Trevor Lawrence

Snubs

The biggest snub to me is the Indianapolis Colts’ tight end, Tyler Warren. He had a great rookie campaign with 817 receiving yards on 76 catches and scored four touchdowns. I thought he was the best rookie for large chunks of the season, until late. However, to not even be on the ballot is insane to me.

Final Thoughts

It’s always interesting to see who wins what award at the end of the season. With a year that was interesting for good and for bad, this was one hell of an NFL season, and we still have three games left! Who do you see taking home the awards?

As always, thank you so much for checking out the list of finalists for this year’s NFL Honors. Be sure to check out our other amazing content here at New Leaf News! We hope you’re enjoying your day and look forward to seeing you again soon.