1. Most Valuable Player- Patrick Mahomes: Remember when Andy Reid and the Kansas City Chiefs decided to trade up and draft this kid out of Texas Tech? There was a lot of outrage surrounding the move. A full year later, he puts the entire league on notice and helped guide the Chiefs to another AFC West title, the top seed in the AFC and a 12-4 record. He’s truly the closest thing I’ve seen next to Aaron Rodgers from an athletic standpoint because when he’s outside that pocket, he’s able to do so much with the ball. Patrick Mahomes has become a superstar in this league and each week during the regular season, he had us all talking. He became the third player within the last 11 years to throw 50 touchdown passes in a single season joining Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, not a bad group of names to be mentioned with.
2. Most Improved Player- Dee Ford: He was a huge piece of the Chiefs defense this year. He became their best defensive player He reached career highs in sacks, forced fumbles, tackles, tackles for loss, and quarterback hits during the 2018 regular season. He even led the NFL in forced fumbles and tied for second place for sacks by an outside linebacker. Chiefs fans saw the improvement and I did too. Many will say he’s played this well because it’s a contract year for him. I just say I saw a guy who was hungry and willing to make a play for his team.
3. Offensive Rookie Of The Year- Saquon Barkley: The New York Giants had another down year in 2018, but the bright spot was the guy they made the second overall pick in last year’s draft. No matter what happens for the Giants in the future, he’ll be apart of what’s to come. Each week, Saquon was doing something to wow us. Whether it was a big time run or catch, he always found himself making a play. He finished the season with 1,307 yards rushing and 721 yards receiving along with 15 total touchdowns this year.
4. Defensive Rookie Of The Year- Darius Leonard: Pay close attention to him because this is the next defensive superstar in the making. He came in as a rookie and had an immediate impact. The Colts haven’t had a guy like this on the defensive side since the days of Bob Sanders, Robert Mathis and Dwight Freeney (Yeah, I took it back). Darius finished the 2018 season leading the league in combined tackled with 163 and solo with 111. He also added seven sacks which was the second most amongst defensive rookies.
5. Offensive Player Of The Year- Patrick Mahomes: Was there any other choice for this award? He threw 50 touchdown passes as I said up top. There’s not much else to say!
6. Defensive Player Of The Year- Aaron Donald: This one is another no doubter. He will win this award for the second straight year and become the first guy to repeat as the defensive MVP since J.J. Watt. He’s the most dominant defensive player in the league right now and he deserved every penny of that contract he received in September. He’s the driving force for that Rams defense. It starts with him. He’s the first guy that comes up when you’re gameplanning to face the Rams.
7. Coach Of The Year- Matt Nagy: Young, offensive minded coaches are the thing now. Look what the Rams got in Sean McVay. The Chicago Bears decided to make the same type of hire. Matt came in and led the Bears to their first winning season, division title and first playoff appearance since the 2010 season. His players have referred to him as one of the guys, just with more authority. He took the Bears from last place in the NFC North in 2017 to the top of the mountain in 2018. The Bears found their guy to lead them for years to come.
8. Comeback Player Of The Year- Andrew Luck: This was another no-brainer for me. Because he hadn’t been on the field in so long, I think people forgot just how good Andrew Luck is. Out of each playoff team in this year’s postseason, nobody meant more to their team than number 12 did for the Colts. He finished his comeback season with 39 touchdown passes. Look at it like this, the Colts were preparing for the draft around this time last year. A year later, they’re in the playoffs. That doesn’t happen without Luck.
