With only Super Bowl 58 left on the NFL schedule, the league on Thursday honored the best and brightest figures from the 2023 season.
The annual NFL Honors show serves as the league’s forum to recognize its top performers from the past season, with a wide array of awards – including Most Valuable Player, Coach of the Year and Walter Payton Man of the Year – being handed out. The Pro Football Hall of Fame also announced the members of its 2024 class.
Here’s a full rundown of all the major awards from the event in Las Vegas.
NFL Walter Payton Man of the Year: Pittsburgh Steelers DT Cam Heyward
Cam Heyward has long been one of the NFL’s most respected players both on and off the field. Now, the Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle has earned some well-deserved recognition for his work on both fronts.
A six-time Pro Bowl selection, Heyward was named the Walter Payton Man of the Year on Thursday.
Heyward was the Steelers’ nominee for the sixth time in his career.
His charitable endeavors have included The Heyward House Foundation and Craig’s Closet, and he has also been involved with Cafe Momentum Pittsburgh and UPMC Children’s Hospital.
“Cameron Heyward’s character and contributions to his community are recognized by his teammates, the community, and greater NFL family,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement. “As a Pittsburgh native and a Steeler, he has made a unique contribution to his hometown through his dedication to literacy, mentorship and social justice. His leadership through initiatives such as The Heyward House Foundation, Suiting Up for Success and the Voices of Hope Scholarship have provided those in need crucial support in a time of need. We are extremely proud to name Cameron Heyward as our 2023 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year.”
NFL MVP: Baltimore Ravens QB Lamar Jackson
Lamar Jackson did it again – and it was almost unanimous for a historic second time.
The Baltimore Ravens quarterback was voted as the Associated Press NFL MVP, earning 49 of 50 first-place votes. One vote went to Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen.
Jackson, 27, previously won the award in a unanimous decision – just the second in NFL history – in 2019.
After a contentious standoff between Jackson and the Ravens engulfed much of the early portion of the offseason, the two sides agreed to a five-year, $260 million contract extension. Under first-year offensive coordinator Todd Monken, Jackson helped pilot the Ravens to an NFL-best 13-4 record in the regular season. Baltimore would ultimately fall to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC championship game.
NFL Comeback Player of the Year: Cleveland Browns QB Joe Flacco
Joe Flacco was talking with a small group of Cleveland-area writers the final Friday of the Browns’ regular season when he was asked if he was having as much fun as at any point in the quarterback’s 16-year NFL career.
The question led the former Super Bowl 47 Most Valuable Player back to where his season actually started, which was at his suburban Philadelphia home.
“Everybody always asks just about being at home,” Flacco said at the time. “And I think, just the last few years in general, just being a backup and feeling like I could play and then sitting at home and still feeling like I could play, it does give you a new perspective on things and how fortunate you are to do this. So when you’re out there, I think it’s impossible for that not to come through in certain ways. It’s impossible to hold that, not that I’m out there actively thinking about that, but I think it’s just impossible to not let that come out in some way.”
For Flacco, it came out over an unforgettable final five-week stretch of the regular season that propelled the Browns into the playoffs. The recognition for that came Thursday night, when the 39-year-old quarterback was honored as the NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year.
Flacco, who went 4-1 with 1,616 passing yards and 13 touchdowns in the regular season for the Browns, edged out the Buffalo Bills’ Damar Hamlin. Hamlin, who went into cardiac arrest on the field during a 2022 game in Cincinnati, was inactive for 12 of Buffalo’s 17 regular-season games. – Chris Easterling, Akron Beacon Journal
NFL Offensive Player of the Year: San Francisco 49ers RB Christian McCaffrey
As he waits for Super Bowl 58 and the opportunity to hoist the Lombardi Trophy, Christian McCaffrey received some other hardware for his regular-season accomplishments.
The San Francisco 49ers running back was voted the Associated Press NFL Offensive Player of the Year on Thursday.
Playing in his first full season for Kyle Shanahan and Co. after being acquired in a trade-deadline deal in 2022, McCaffrey proved to be a lethal addition to an already prolific offense. His league-best totals for rushing yards (1,459) and yards from scrimmage (2,023) far outpaced the figures of all other players at his position, while he tied the Miami Dolphins’ Raheem Mostert for the most total touchdowns (21).
McCaffrey beat out Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill, who led the NFL in receiving yards (1,799) but fell short of his stated goal of eclipsing the single-season record with 2,000.
NFL Coach of the Year: Cleveland Browns coach Kevin Stefanski
After an offseason of heavy speculation regarding his job status, Kevin Stefanski once again is being honored for outpacing expectations.
The Cleveland Browns coach won the Associated Press NFL Coach of the Year award on Thursday, taking home the honor for the second time in his career.
Stefanski finished with the same number of total points as first-year Houston Texans coach DeMeco Ryans but won out thanks to a 21-20 edge in first-place votes.
Stefanski faced heightened scrutiny coming off a 7-10 season in 2022 in which quarterback Deshaun Watson, whom the team landed in a blockbuster trade the previous offseason, struggled to acclimate after serving an 11-game suspension. Despite losing star running back Nick Chubb to a season-ending knee injury in Week 2 and Watson also being knocked out around midseason with a shoulder injury, the Browns managed to secure just their second playoff berth in two decades with an 11-6 record.
Stefanski also claimed the award in 2020, his first season as Cleveland’s coach.
NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year: Houston Texans defensive end Will Anderson Jr.
Call it a clean sweep for the Houston Texans.
After Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud took home Offensive Rookie of the Year honors on Thursday, defensive end Will Anderson Jr. was named Defensive Rookie of the Year later in the night.
The Alabama product, taken one pick after Stroud at No. 3 overall, recorded seven sacks in helping the Texans surge to an AFC South title under first-year coach DeMeco Ryans.
Anderson earned 16 first-place votes, narrowly beating out Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle Jalen Carter and Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Kobie Turner, who each had 14.
NFL Defensive Player of the Year: Cleveland Browns DE Myles Garrett
Myles Garrett is accustomed to beating his opponents to a spot. On Thursday, he once again found a way to finish first.
The Cleveland Browns defensive end emerged from a crowded field to win NFL Defensive Player of the Year.
Garrett was the cornerstone of the NFL’s stingiest defense, allowing a league-low 270.2 yards per game. The three-time All-Pro recorded 14 sacks, which was tied for seventh among all players.
Winning the award for the first time in his career, Garrett edged out Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker and 2021 Defensive Player of the Year T.J. Watt, who led the league with 19 sacks. Dallas Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons, Cowboys cornerback DaRon Bland and Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby were the other finalists.
Garrett had 23 first-place votes, while Watt finished with 19.
Prior to the announcement, Parsons backed Garrett in response to a comparison among a trio of the finalists.
NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year: Houston Texans QB C.J. Stroud
In the 2023 NFL draft, C.J. Stroud took a backseat to No. 1 overall pick Bryce Young. In his rookie season, however, Stroud stood above all his peers.
The Houston Texans quarterback capped his historic debut campaign by being voted the Associated Press NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year on Thursday, beating out Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua, among others.
After being selected with the No. 2 pick out of Ohio State, Stroud took little time to find his footing in the NFL. By October, he broke Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott’s record for most passes without an interception to start a career, finishing with 191. In a Nov. 5 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Stroud set the single-game mark for passing yards by a rookie with 470, shattering the previous high (433) set by Andrew Luck in 2012.
Stroud served as the catalyst in the Texans’ turnaround from a 3-13-1 campaign in 2022 to AFC South division champions. His 4,108 passing yards stands as the third-best total in history for any first-year passer. Stroud also tied a rookie record for touchdown passes in a playoff game (three) in the team’s 45-14 wild-card victory over the Cleveland Browns, which also made him the youngest quarterback in league history to win a playoff game.
Stroud won by an overwhelming 48-2 vote, with Nacua claiming the only other two first-place marks.
Nacua, a fifth-round pick out of BYU, broke the longstanding NFL single-season record for receiving yards by a rookie (1,486) while also setting a new mark for catches (105).
NFL Assistant Coach of the Year: Cleveland Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz
The offseason acquisition who set the Browns on the path back to the playoffs didn’t score a single touchdown or make a single tackle. All he did was make sure their opponents didn’t do the former, while running a defense that made a lot of the latter.
Jim Schwartz was hired as Browns defensive coordinator two weeks after the 2022 season ended to fix their defense. The veteran coach did that — at times at a historic rate — as Cleveland produced the best statistical defense in the league.
For that, Schwartz was recognized Thursday night as the NFL’s Assistant Coach of the Year. The award, presented by the Associated Press, was announced during the NFL Honors program in Las Vegas.
“Just the Schwartz impact on our organization and our team,” general manager Andrew Berry said in a statement. “And not just what Jim and the defensive staff were able to do with a dominant and historic defense, but in the building his impact spans far beyond just getting the guys ready to play on the field. He’s an incredible organizational partner, an incredible human being, cares about our players, cares about our staff. We are very, very fortunate to have him as a part of our team.”
The Browns essentially went wire-to-wire in the regular season as the league’s No. 1 defense in total yards (270.2), third-down efficiency (29.1%) and passing yards (164.7). Those were significant improvements over the previous year, when they ranked 14th in total yards (331.5), 19th in third-down efficiency (39.1%) and fifth in passing yards (196.2). – Chris Easterling, Akron Beacon Journal
