Quietly, Comeback Player of the Year has become another award historically dominated by quarterbacks.
Since the hardware was reintroduced to the league in 1997, signal-callers have overwhelmingly been the choice of voters. In fact, six quarterbacks won consecutively from 2008 to ’13, and now we’re on another five-year streak with Andrew Luck, Ryan Tannehill, Alex Smith, Joe Burrow and Geno Smith.
However, this year is unique with Bills safety Damar Hamlin’s being the runaway favorite to win the award after needing to be revived on the field in Week 17 against the Bengals. With Hamlin now cleared to play once more, many believe he has the obvious inside track to the award.
But if Hamlin doesn’t win, then who? There are a few quarterbacks who make sense in Tua Tagovailoa, Matthew Stafford and Russell Wilson, but they aren’t truly dark horses. Here are a few to consider:
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Matt Verderame: Breece Hall, RB, New York Jets. After being taken in the second round by the Jets in 2022, Hall immediately became one of the league’s best running backs before tearing his ACL against the Broncos in Week 7.
In seven games, Hall ran for 463 yards and four touchdowns on an absurd 5.8 yards per carry, helping New York fight for a playoff spot into the final days of the regular season. Now, with quarterback Aaron Rodgers coming to New Jersey along with receivers Allen Lazard and Mecole Hardman, the Jets will present a much tougher challenge for defensive coordinators.
One of the biggest beneficiaries from this should be Hall, who will go from seeing stacked boxes to one of the league’s lightest. Before being injured as a rookie, he had three games of more than 90 total scrimmage yards.
If Hall can bounce back and stay healthy for 17 games, he should be one of the most effective and impactful runners in the league. While being surrounded by a competent passing game might limit his touches a bit, he’ll have the opportunity to do even more without a bevy of defenders standing near the line of scrimmage.
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Gilberto Manzano: Calvin Ridley, WR, Jaguars. This needs to happen just for the acceptance speech Ridley would deliver at the NFL Honors awards ceremony.
I would like to thank the NFL’s hypocrisy. Without them suspending me an entire year for sports gambling, which they profit from by the millions, I wouldn’t be here today.
That would be an awkward scene, similar to how commissioner Roger Goodell handed Tom Brady and the Patriots the Super Bowl trophy after Deflategate.
There’s a strong chance of this scenario occurring, because Ridley will play with a talented Jaguars team and catch passes from Trevor Lawrence, who developed into one of the best quarterbacks in the league last season.
Ridley had a strong start to his career with the Falcons, but he missed all of last season for violating the league’s gambling policy and played only five games in 2021 due to mental health reasons.
With a better team situation and at age 28, it’s not unlikely that Ridley can return to his form from 2020, when he recorded 90 catches for 1,374 yards and nine touchdowns.
