NFL Awards Picks: Awards Ballot Ahead of NFL Honors
The NFL awards betting markets may be long closed, but we're still offering our predictions for tonight's festivities.
Players across the league will be celebrated when the NFL Honors get underway at 9 p.m. ET (FOX) from the Saenger Theater in New Orleans.
Our NFL awards picks offer one final look at how we expect things to shake out, with many hotly contested battles lasting right up until Week 18.
My 2025 NFL awards ballot & best picks
- NFL MVP pick: Lamar Jackson
- Offensive Player of the Year pick: Saquon Barkley
- Defensive Player of the Year pick: Patrick Surtain II
- Offensive Rookie of the Year pick: Jayden Daniels
- Defensive Rookie of the Year pick: Jared Verse
- Comeback Player of the Year pick: Damar Hamlin
- Coach of the Year pick: Dan Campbell
NFL MVP pick: Lamar Jackson
We're starting off with the biggest award of the night: NFL MVP.
This one was an extremely tight race down to the wire, with Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen closing as the minus-money favorite by the NFL MVP odds.
However, it was Lamar Jackson, not Allen, who was named as the first-team All-Pro quarterback. That generally acts as a fairly telling precedent when it comes to who will then be crowned the MVP.
In the end, Jackson had the better individual numbers, with most Allen backers citing the fact that his team won more games.
Unfortunately, neither of these quarterbacks managed the ultimate goal of playing on one of two teams featured in the final Super Bowl odds. Therefore, this honor will likely feel like somewhat of a consolation to the Lombardi Trophy for two players who are as competitive as they are, especially given the fact that the NFL Honors are hosted in the home of Super Bowl 2025.
Offensive Player of the Year pick: Saquon Barkley
The NFL Offensive Player of the Year odds featured a competitive race for a large portion of the season. First, Derrick Henry was a sizeable favorite, and then Saquon Barkley really started to turn it on. For a bit, they were nearly neck and neck, until Barkley pulled away.
Henry didn't even close as the second-biggest favorite due to a relatively quiet end to the campaign, with Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase holding down that position.
It doesn't matter, though, as Barkley is easily the winner of this award. He closed at odds of -5000, which come with an implied probability of more than 98%. Really, a fair price would have been -1000000, because that suggests an implied probability of 99.99%.
Defensive Player of the Year pick: Patrick Surtain II
The NFL Defensive Player of the Year odds actually somewhat mimicked those for OPOY. We had a player from the AFC North jump out to favorite status before stumbling late and being overtaken by a man who put his team on his back.
For this award, our pick - and the heavy favorite when this market closed - is Patrick Surtain II. He was the definition of a lockdown corner this year, helping an overachieving Denver Broncos team make the playoffs.
He also had perhaps the best defensive highlight of the entire season:
Offensive Rookie of the Year pick: Jayden Daniels
I'm going to start this by shaming myself. When the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year odds were relatively close and Jayden Daniels had exactly one bad game (while seemingly injured), I did in fact suggest a bet on Bo Nix to win was perhaps a good idea:
Well, you would have been better off donating that money to charity because it simply wasn't close when the season concluded. Daniels was just on another level. He wasn't just the best rookie quarterback this season, but he was one of the best quarterbacks in the entire NFL.
In fact, I'd be hard-pressed to name more than three signal-callers I'd want starting for my team next season ahead of Daniels.
Overall, this rookie class was truly something special on the offensive side of the ball.
We had incredible wide receivers like Malik Nabes, Brian Thomas Jr., Marvin Harrison Jr., and Ladd McConkey. Brock Bowers was one of the best tight ends in the entire league. Of course, he's no Barkley, but Tyrone Tracy Jr. had a really impressive rookie campaign for the New York Giants, and Bucky Irving was simply incredible for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Additionally, Drake Maye looked great for the New England Patriots, and Caleb Williams showed some flashes for an otherwise dysfunctional Chicago Bears team. The NFL is in good hands with the 2024 draft class.
Defensive Rookie of the Year pick: Jared Verse
It wasn't just the offensive side of the ball, either.
One of the reasons our Chiefs vs. Eagles Super Bowl predictions have featured both teams equally is because Philadelphia's secondary was great this year, and a big reason for that was the work of NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year odds contenders Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean.
They'll have to settle for simply being among the contenders, though, as the winner of this award will be Los Angeles Rams linebacker Jared Verse.
The biggest compliment I can give Verse is that if you watched the Rams play, you'd have no idea he's a rookie. The Pro Bowler played and carried himself like a seasoned vet, and that's why this market closed with odds that carry a 90.91% implied probability that he'll win this award.
Comeback Player of the Year pick: Damar Hamlin
I'm going to put this bluntly: the NFL Comeback Player of the Year odds are perhaps the biggest joke of any award across North American sports.
Last season, Joe Flacco won for coming back from, being old? This year, Joe Burrow - who dealt with a wrist injury last year but still played 10 games - and Sam Darnold closed as the favorites. The latter bravely came back from being terrible just to be exposed as still terrible in the Minnesota Vikings' final two games.
Therefore, I'm riding with the person who should have won this award last year, and that's Damar Hamlin.
If your argument against him last year was that he barely played (first of all, touch grass, because the fact he came back at all was miraculous), then he remedied that this year by starting 14 games.
Hamlin shouldn't just win the Comeback Player of the Year for the 2024 season. The NFL should also provide him with a written apology for robbing him of his moment last year.
Sadly, Burrow will probably win, and around and around we go. Get your Trevor Lawrence 2025 Comeback Player of the Year bets ready now.
Coach of the Year pick: Dan Campbell
I know this is an award meant to represent the accomplishments of a coach for the entire season, but Kevin O'Connell and Dan Campbell closed as the top two contenders by the NFL Coach of the Year odds, and one of them won both games in the head-to-head matchup this year.
In fact, the second contest wasn't even close, as Campbell and his Detroit Lions exposed O'Connell in the regular-season finale.
I appreciate what O'Connell did with a Minnesota Vikings team that everyone wrote off, but there's something to be said for the Lions having already-high expectations and exceeding them despite being annihilated by injuries throughout the season.
NFL Honors FAQs
When is NFL Honors?
The NFL Honors ceremony is set to take place on Thursday, Feb. 6.
What time does NFL Honors start?
The NFL awards special will begin at 9 p.m. ET.
Where is NFL Honors?
The NFL Honors will be hosted at the Saenger Theater in New Orleans, the home of Super Bowl 2025.
Who's hosting NFL Honors?
Snoop Dogg will host the NFL Honors.
How to watch NFL Honors
The show will air on FOX and NFL Network, and you can stream it on NFL+.
NFL betting odds pages
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