The NFL’s move to a 17-game schedule has made it impossible to split the season in half. Instead, we’ll go by weeks since those are still an even number at 18. San Francisco is on its bye for Week 9, which means it’s time to give out some first-half awards.
It was a tumultuous first eight games for the 49ers with injuries on both sides off the ball, a quarterback change, and a handful of ugly losses that led them to a 4-4 record at their bye week.
We sifted through the good, bad and ugly from the first half to suss out some mid-season awards:
Offensive player of the first half
Winner: WR Brandon Aiyuk
Runner up: WR Deebo Samuel
Aiyuk has been San Francisco’s most consistent offensive performer, and his 80-plus yard games in each of the last three leading into the bye portend a big second half. Trent Williams missed too many games to injury to be in consideration.
Defensive player of the first half
Winner: DE Nick Bosa
Runner up: LB Fred Warner
The entire defense has been excellent, but Bosa is the star of that unit, tied for the league lead with 8.5 sacks, and San Francisco’s most irreplaceable player. His absence was glaring in the team’s Week 6 loss to the Falcons. Warner looks like an All-Pro once again, but Bosa is in the Defensive Player of the Year conversation, putting him just slightly above the LB.
Biggest surprise
Winner: LG Aaron Banks
Runner up: SS Talanoa Hufanga
Banks couldn’t get on the field as a rookie, which made him a massive question mark going into this year. He’s had some up-and-down showings, but there was potential for him to be a disaster. Banks has allowed one or fewer pressures in four of the eight games, and he’s yet to allow a sack. Hufanga has had a better year, but his big start to the season is less of a surprise than Banks turning into a quality starter at LG.
Biggest disappointment
Winner (Loser?): Third-round picks
Runner up: DE Samson Ebukam
RB Tyrion Davis-Price and WR Danny Gray were both selected in the third-round of this year’s draft, and neither player has been able to get on the field with any consistency. Injuries have impacted both, but Davis-Price has just 16 carries for 37 yards, and Gray hasn’t caught any of his six targets. Additional production from either player would’ve helped the 49ers a ton in the first half while their offense was scuffling. Ebukam has been okay, but he finished last year on a tear that indicated he might have a monster second season with San Francisco. Instead he’s been mostly just okay with 22 pressures and 3.5 sacks.
Play of the Year
Winner: Week 4, Deebo Samuel 57-yard TD vs. Rams
Runner up: Week 8, Christian McCaffrey 34-yard TD pass at Rams
Samuel’s TD vs. the Rams set a tone early in that game that it was going to go like the previous six regular-season matchups had gone. It was also just an incredible individual effort from the WR where he made a terrific catch, broke tackles, juked defenders, and outran others to put the 49ers up 14-6 late in the first half. The McCaffrey TD pass to Aiyuk was terrific, but Samuel’s catch-and-run was a better individual play.
First-half MVP
Winner: DE Nick Bosa
Runner up: WR Brandon Aiyuk
It’s kind of unoriginal to put the best offensive and defensive players as the winner and runner up here, but it’s hard to justify including anyone else given some of the injury issues the 49ers have had. The second half could bear different fruit in the team MVP discussion because of what Christian McCaffrey brings, but for now Bosa is the team’s MVP with Aiyuk right behind him.
