Before the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots meet at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, for Super Bowl LX (Sunday, 6:30 p.m. ET, NBC), the best of the NFL gathered at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco for Thursday's NFL Honors.
Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett kicked off the event by winning Defensive Player of the Year. Carolina Panthers wideout Tetairoa McMillan was named Offensive Rookie of the Year, Chicago Bears guard took home the inaugural Protector of the Year award, and San Francisco 49ers do-it-all back Christian McCaffrey won Comeback Player of the Year. The Patriots Mike Vrabel and Josh McDaniels were awarded top coach and assistant, while Browns linebacker Carson Schwesinger captured the top rookie defender award. And Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford won the biggest prize -- MVP.
Here's a look at who took home the awards and why:
MVP
At age 37 -- and in his 17th NFL season -- Stafford led the NFL in passing yards (4,707), touchdowns (46) and touchdowns-to-interceptions ratio (5.8). He threw for 313 more passing yards and 15 more touchdowns than New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye, who was the runner-up. Stafford's 2025 season was the eighth time in NFL history that a quarterback threw for at least 4,500 yards and 45 touchdowns in a season, according to ESPN Research. Six of the previous seven quarterbacks to do so won MVP awards. The only one who didn't was Drew Brees in 2011 as Aaron Rodgers also reached those thresholds that season.
Stafford went eight games without throwing an interception in the middle of the season. During that stretch, he threw 28 straight touchdowns. According to Elias, that is the longest streak of passing touchdowns without an interception by any player since play-by-play was first tracked in 1978. -- Sarah Barshop
Defensive Player of the Year
The preeminent pass rusher of his generation, Garrett turned in a record-breaking season to win his second DPOY award. Garrett's 23 sacks broke the single-season record that was previously shared by Pro Football Hall of Famer Michael Strahan and Pittsburgh Steelers edge rusher T.J. Watt. Garrett achieved this feat despite being double-teamed or chipped on 39.5% of his pass rushes this season, per NFL Next Gen Stats, more than any other edge rusher.
While all the focus was on Garrett's pursuit of the sack record, he took pride in being an all-around player; his 33 tackles for loss were the second most by a player since 2000, behind only J.J. Watt's 39 in 2012.
"When you got that much attention for you every week and you're still putting up the numbers that he's putting up, that's pretty special," Browns defensive line coach Jacques Cesaire said. -- Daniel Oyefusi
Offensive Rookie of the Year
McMillan called his rookie year average, but the Carolina wide receiver was anything but.
The eighth pick of the 2025 draft had 70 catches on 122 targets for 1,014 yards and seven touchdowns to lead all rookies in receiving yards and set a Carolina rookie record in that category.
Twenty-seven of his catches were considered explosive (16-plus yards), more than any other rookie in 2025.
He also had seven receptions on fourth down, six producing first downs. He helped elevate the game of quarterback Bryce Young, who finally had a true No. 1 receiver in his third NFL season.
"He was elite,'' Young said before breaking for the offseason. "He's a special player.'' McMillan calling himself average just speaks to how high his expectations are.
"There's a lot more out there that could have been had,'' he said. "I hold myself to a high standard, so average.'' -- David Newton
Protector of the Year
Thuney earned first-team All-Pro honors for a fourth straight season and paid immediate dividends for the Bears' revamped offensive line after being traded from Kansas City to Chicago in March 2025.
The 33-year-old left guard did not allow a sack and logged the second-most snaps of anyone on the Bears' offense (99.57%). Quarterback Caleb Williams took 44 fewer sacks than his rookie season in large part due to the improvements Chicago made along the interior of the line.
Thuney was tied for the lead among all interior offensive linemen in pass block win rate by sustaining his blocks for 2.5 seconds 98% of the time.
When rookie Ozzy Trapilo went down with a season-ending knee injury in the playoffs, Thuney moved to left tackle for Chicago's divisional round matchup with the Rams. That marked his second straight postseason in which he moved to tackle.
While not tied to his individual performance, Thuney's contributions for each of the three teams he has played for highlight his consistency over the past 10 seasons.
He won two Super Bowls with the Patriots and helped them capture the AFC East four out of five seasons (2016 to 2020). With the Kansas City Chiefs, he won two Super Bowls, and this season he was a part of the Bears' turnaround from five to 11 wins, a division title and playoff victory. -- Courtney Cronin
Comeback Player of the Year
After bilateral Achilles tendinitis and a right knee injury limited him to four games in 2024, McCaffrey returned to his usual, versatile self in 2025. This is McCaffrey's first Comeback Player of the Year award after finishing second in 2022. He earned it by virtue of his 2,126 scrimmage yards (second in the NFL) and 17 total touchdowns (third). Perhaps more important, McCaffrey started all 19 games, including playoffs. In the regular season, he had a league-high 413 touches, 44 more than the next closest player and the highest total of his nine seasons in the league.
When it was over, McCaffrey called 2025 "one of the hardest years of my life" because of the offseason spent rehabbing from his knee injury and strengthening his Achilles to take on the rigors of another season. As injuries mounted around him, McCaffrey was the one constant in San Francisco's offense, playing a pivotal role in helping the 49ers go 12-5 and reach the NFC divisional round.
"I think this was one of the most impressive seasons by an individual player ever," coach Kyle Shanahan said of McCaffrey. "Just in terms of what a warrior and man he is week in, week out. ... He commits himself 24 hours a day, seven days a week to get his body ready to go out there and compete. I've never been around anything like that." -- Nick Wagoner
Coach of the Year
Taking over a team that won just four games in each of the past two seasons, Vrabel directed the Patriots to a 14-3 record in the regular season and then the Super Bowl.
The 10-game improvement tied the 1999 Colts and 2008 Dolphins for the best turnaround in NFL history. He joins George Seifert (1989 49ers) and Jim Caldwell (2009 Colts) as the only coaches to win 14 games in their first season.
Players credited Vrabel, 50, with instilling a culture that placed a heavy emphasis on connectivity. One way he did that was introducing the "4 Hs" in the spring, when each coach and player shared their history, hero, heartbreak and hope in front of the team. Vrabel said he learned the idea in 2024 from former Browns coach Kevin Stefanski, as Vrabel was serving as a consultant on his staff that season. Players said learning more about each teammate's story made them want to play harder for one another.
"Probably the best coach I've ever had," said wide receiver Stefon Diggs, who is in his 11th season. "I don't know how he does it. He got me to buy in, I'll tell you that." -- Mike Reiss
Defensive Rookie of the Year
On a defense that saw Garrett break the single-season sack record, it was hard to ignore Schwesinger. The No. 33 pick in the 2025 NFL draft, Schwesinger led all rookies in tackles (146) and tackles for loss (11), and he tied for third in interceptions (2). A former walk-on at UCLA, Schwesinger wore a helmet with the green dot, serving as the signal-caller for the league's fourth-best team in total defense.
"It's a very difficult position, and he's been right in the middle of it," Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz said, "and it's been fun to watch because not only does he do all that stuff well, but he has great command. He's a great leader for us. He's our playcaller, very rarely makes a mistake. When he does make a mistake, it doesn't repeat, and he's very productive on the field." -- Daniel Oyefusi
Offensive Player of the Year
Smith-Njigba played his way into the conversation of the NFL's best receivers with the most prolific season a Seahawks pass catcher has ever had. His 1,793 receiving yards led the NFL and set a franchise record. He scored 10 touchdowns and finished second among all players in yards per target at 10.9 on his way to making the Pro Bowl and being named a first-team All-Pro. The latter figure illustrates how productive Smith-Njigba was despite playing in the NFL's most run-heavy offense, as Seattle led the league with a designed rush rate of 47.6%. JSN came up big for Seattle in the NFC Championship Game, catching 10 passes for 153 yards and his second touchdown in two postseason games to help the Seahawks advance to Super Bowl LX. -- Brady Henderson
Assistant Coach of the Year
Returning to New England for his third separate stint as offensive coordinator, the 49-year-old McDaniels had spent 2024 out of the NFL after being fired as Raiders head coach in October 2023. He said he found "peace and joy" during the year away.
His work this season with Drake Maye has been exemplary, helping the second-year quarterback elevate into a bona fide MVP candidate. The two spent the spring getting to know each other, which included spirited pickleball matches and family dinners before teaming up on X's and O's that ultimately had Maye finishing 2025 ranked first in completion percentage (72%), QBR (77.1) and yards per attempt (8.93).
"You have an experienced coach who has done it at the highest level, who has seen the progression of [Tom Brady] come in and become the greatest ever. And you have a curious and wide-eyed young player who's very talented at football coming off a year where you don't win a lot, so you're like 'I'll do whatever if it means we'll be good.' I think that's a good combination," backup quarterback Joshua Dobbs said.
The Patriots' offense under McDaniels, which was just the second team since 2000 to open a season with rookies starting at left tackle (Will Campbell) and left guard (Jared Wilson), finished the regular season ranked third in total yards per game (379.4). -- Mike Reiss
Curated by Tom Mitchell
