The NFL draft is still more than a month away, Aaron Rodgers is still (presumably) sitting in a dark cave somewhere pondering his future, we don’t know what teams trade targets A.J. Brown and Maxx Crosby will be playing for ultimately, and the hotly anticipated Jacoby Brissett-Gardner Minshew QB controversy in Arizona hasn’t even really started brewing yet.
So we couldn’t possibly be ready to forecast who is going to take home the top 2026 NFL awards, you say?
Watch us …
Predicting Who Will Win The Top 2026 NFL Awards
MVP: Buffalo Bills QB Josh Allen
We’re really going out on a limb here. After winning MVP in 2024 and finishing third in the voting in 2025, we’re sending the trophy back to Allen this coming season.
Buffalo’s decision to fire longtime head coach Sean McDermott was a bit divisive and actually upset a lot of Bills fans, but it needed to happen. His teams too often came out flat, took too many surprising losses and never ultimately got over the hump despite having a generational talent at quarterback.
Was offensive coordinator Joe Brady the right choice to replace him? Ehh, time will tell. But going from the lifeless McDermott, who had all the energy of a county morgue medical examiner, to the more outgoing and exuberant Brady should at least bring a fresh jolt to the team.
Also, it will be interesting to see if the former offensive coordinator chooses to do anything differently on that side of the ball now that he has the final say on everything.
Then there’s the fact that with the trade for wide receiver DJ Moore, Allen now has his best set of pass-catchers since Stefon Diggs’ first couple seasons in Buffalo. (We broke that down more in-depth here!).
The man won an MVP and finished third the next season despite a solid slot receiver in Khalil Shakir acting as his de facto No. 1 receiver. Look for Allen’s passing numbers to spike up in 2026, the Bills to be better overall and Hailee Steinfeld’s husband to win his second MVP.
Defensive Player of the Year: Houston Texans EDGE Will Anderson Jr.
Cleveland Browns edge rusher Myles Garrett was the unanimous pick for defensive player of the year in 2025 after breaking the NFL single-season record with 23 sacks. He’s won the award twice now and is the early betting favorite to win it again next season.
But it’s hard to repeat. Only two players in the last 40 years have won that award in back-to-back seasons — J.J. Watt in 2014-15 and Aaron Donald in 2017-18.
And Garrett has set the bar rather high for himself now. If he finishes with, say, 17 sacks next season, that’s still an incredible year, but it will be compared against his 2025 total. Also, if the Browns are bad again (we can probably lose the “if” …) and Garrett’s numbers drop even modestly like that, voters are going to be inclined to look elsewhere.
That’s partly why we’re not going “chalk” here despite every expectation that Garrett continues to be an elite menace off the edge in 2026.
We’d be inclined to then say that Green Bay Packers edge rusher Micah Parsons is due to win the award for the first time. After all, he managed to still finish third in the voting for 2025 despite being limited to 14 games by a season-ending torn ACL. But it’s no sure thing he’s fully recovered and cleared for the start of the season — or back to peak form at any point in 2026, for that matter — so we’ll defer that pick to our “Way Too Early Predictions For 2027 NFL Awards” column coming out next week. Just kidding!
Those scientific calculations lead us to one logical choice here.
Anderson finished second in the voting in 2025 after setting career-highs in his third NFL season with 54 tackles, 12 sacks and 3 forced fumbles for a Texans defense that was the best in the league.
That reputation kind of developed as the season unfolded and the Texans ripped off 10 straight wins despite modest quarterback play. Going into 2026, the spotlight will be on Houston’s defense from the start, and Anderson is the face of the unit.
The No. 3 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, Anderson won NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year his first season and has gotten better each year. He had 93 pressures last season, per PFF’s count, which ranked third among all edge rushers.
If his sack total continues to climb, the Texans remain elite defensively overall and he makes a few memorable splash plays that stick in voters’ minds, Anderson could take home his first defensive player of the year honor.
Offensive Player of the Year: Los Angeles Rams WR Puka Nacua
Speaking of getting better each year …
Nacua was the steal of the 2023 NFL Draft with the Rams striking gold in the fifth round (No. 177 overall!) with the wide receiver out of BYU.
He had 105 receptions for 1,486 yards and 6 TDs as a rookie, which somehow wasn’t enough to win rookie of the year as Texans QB C.J. Stroud took the honor.
After being limited to 11 games in 2024 due to injury, Nacua took his production to an even higher level this past season with an NFL-leading 129 receptions for 1,715 yards (second in the league) and 10 TDs in 16 games. That’s even more impressive when considering he sustained a significant ankle injury in the second quarter in Week 6 vs. the Ravens, limiting him to a season-low 2 catches for 28 yards that game and sidelining him for the next one.
Nacua then had 24 catches for 332 yards and 2 TDs in three playoff games. That’s 153 catches for 2,047 yards and 12 TDs in 19 games.
He had 9 catches for 165 yards and a TD against the Seahawks’ normally stifling Super Bowl champion defense in the NFC title game loss … after tallying 12 catches for 225 yards and 2 TDs against Seattle five weeks earlier.
NFL awards are voted on after the regular season, but we’re just saying. Throw the compromised Ravens game out and that equates to 151 catches for 2,019 yards in 18 games. Nobody has ever had 2,000 receiving yards in the regular season — Calvin Johnson set the record at 1,964 in 16 games for the Lions in 2012 and Cooper Kupp had 1,947 in 17 games in 2021 for the Rams.
It’s not crazy to think Nacua could make a run at 2,000 yards one of these next few seasons. But that doesn’t need to happen for him to win this award (we’d be talking MVP consideration in that case).
The Rams will be one of the favorites to win the Super Bowl and a strong bet to have the NFL’s best offense in 2026 with all the key pieces back, including reigning MVP Matthew Stafford at QB.
Nacua is arguably the most complete receiver in the NFL and should again challenge for the league lead in all relevant categories — if he stays healthy. That’s always going to be an underlying risk given his relentlessly physical play style, but along those lines he also is as tough as any player in the league and doesn’t come off the field unless absolutely forced to do so. He played 33 of 34 games in the 2023 and 2025 seasons.
Nacua finished third in the voting for offensive player of the year in 2025 behind Seahawks WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba and 49ers RB Christian McCaffrey.
We say he stakes his claim to the award in 2026.
Comeback Player of the Year: Minnesota Vikings QB Kyler Murray
Just lock this one in now. Like those old TV/radio ads for sports betting advice that promoted the “Lead Pipe Lock” of the week, this is our most confident pick of all.
Regular readers know we’re getting redundant already at how much we love the Minnesota Vikings’ signing of Murray for a multitude of reasons — first and foremost that it means J.J. McCarthy won’t be hindering Justin Jefferson (and the whole organization for that matter) in 2026.
So we won’t belabor the matter in great depth again. (Read more about it here and here)
The bottom line is that Murray may not be a perfect quarterback, he may not be a top-10 quarterback, but the Cardinals treating him like Tua “Turnovers” Tagovailoa or soon-to-be 38-year-old Kirk Cousins and choosing to eat more than $35 million this season just to get rid of him and have him play for someone else is absurd.
That reality should be underscored by the fact that a legit contender couldn’t wait to bring Murray aboard as soon as he was released.
Murray walks into a prime situation in Minnesota. The Vikings went 14-3 two seasons ago and ranked 9th in the NFL in scoring while reviving Sam Darnold’s career before the disastrous decision to go all-in on McCarthy last year. Look for Murray to experience his own career rejuvenation throwing passes to Jefferson and Jordan Addison while playing for one of the best offensive-minded coaches in the NFL in Kevin O’Connell, who reportedly is a big believer in Murray’s skill set and coveted the QB.
Also, Murray never bottomed out in Arizona. As a former No. 1 overall pick in the draft, he never quite delivered on expectations while going 38-48-1 as a starter, but he was also saddled with Jonathan Gannon as his head coach the last three years and a Cardinals organization that wouldn’t rank among the most savvy in the league overall.
A foot injury limited him to five games last season and effectively ended his Cardinals tenure, which all qualifies him for obvious “Comeback Player of the Year” candidacy.
In 2024, Murray completed 68.8% of his passes for 3,851 yards, 21 TDs and 11 INTs and rushed for 572 yards and 5 TDs. He was the 2019 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year. He has 20,460 career passing yards, 121 TDs, 60 INTs, 3,193 rushing yards and 32 TDs.
That’s a solid quarterback!
Now put him in a great offense with an excellent head coach (who still managed to go 9-8 with McCarthy, Carson Wentz and Max Brosmer as his QBs!) and see what he does in 2026.
Offensive Rookie of the Year: QB Fernando Mendoza
We don’t know what team any of the incoming rookies will be playing for — aside from Mendoza being ticketed to the Las Vegas Raiders at No. 1 overall in the draft.
As much as we wanted to pick Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love here, an even semi-decent quarterback season usually trumps even a great performance by a running back, wide receiver or tight end in the rookie of the year voting.
Of course, we say that in the wake of Panthers wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan winning the award in 2025, but that’s because the best QB candidates — the Saints’ Tyler Shough and the Giants’ Jaxson Dart — only played partial seasons.
And actually, in the last 10 years the award has gone to five QBs, three WRs and two RBs, but usually when there is an obvious QB candidate he gets the votes. (Like Stroud over Nacua three years ago.)
ESPN draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. projects Love to be drafted 4th overall to the Tennessee Titans, who still have incumbent RB1 Tony Pollard under contract and coming off four straight 1,000-yard seasons. The Titans could trade Pollard if they do indeed draft Love, but it also makes a lot of sense to keep him for another season and have that tandem help take pressure off second-year QB Cam Ward.
In that scenario, that would undercut some of Love’s volume and overall upside. Also, the Titans ranked 29th in the league in rushing last season and haven’t exactly overhauled that offensive line. As Ashton Jeanty learned last year as a rookie running into a brick wall at the line of scrimmage for the Raiders, it takes a collective effort to support a successful rushing attack in the NFL.
So while it wouldn’t surprise us if Love is an instant success and leading rookie of the year candidate, we’re going to go a different direction here.
As for the top receivers in the draft, Ohio State’s Carnell Tate, Arizona State’s Jordyn Tyson and USC’s Makai Lemon, well, anything’s possible in the right situation.
But we’ll play it safe here and go with Mendoza as our pick for offensive rookie of the year.
The Raiders have already upgraded their offensive line in making three-time Pro Bowl center Tyler Linderbaum the highest-paid player at the position, and it would only make sense for the team to use some of its draft capital to add more offensive line help to support its new quarterback.
Having the best tight end in football in Brock Bowers and a talented RB in Jeanty (despite a modest rookie season) should help too, even if the WR corps is underwhelming.
Mendoza seems as pro-ready as any QB in recent draft classes after winning the Heisman Trophy and leading Indiana to a 16-0 national championship season. His defining traits are his maturity, football IQ, accuracy and decision-making, which all suggest he’ll be able to acquit himself at the next level.
That said, it’s always perilous projecting what rookie quarterbacks will do, but he’s our pick.
Given how bad the Raiders and QB Geno Smith (league-high 17 INTs, tied for league-high with 55 sacks taken) were last season, Mendoza will get credit for any improvement the unit shows.
NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year: LB Sonny Styles
This one is a lot more wide open with plenty of logical contenders, so we won’t make as thorough a case for Styles as the clear favorite.
But the Ohio State star was one of the standouts of the NFL Scouting Combine last month (read more on that here) and looks as ready as any defensive prospect to be an immediate factor in the NFL.
Kiper projects him to go No. 7 overall to the Washington Commanders, who aren’t expected to bring back veteran free agent linebacker and leading tackler Bobby Wagner.
If that’s how the draft plays out, Styles walks into a prime situation to immediately assert himself as the centerpiece of that defense. Washington hit rock bottom defensively last season and has aggressively upgraded the unit already in free agency, and head coach Dan Quinn has a proven track record of producing strong defenses.
This would be an ideal fit for both player and team if Styles lands in D.C.
NFL Coach of the Year: Baltimore Ravens’ Jesse Minter
We almost went with Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald here, since he didn’t win the award last year, might well be the best coach in the NFL now and very possibly could have the best team in football again in 2026 coming off the Super Bowl championship.
If there isn’t a team that pulls off a stunning Patriots-like 4-13 to 14-3 turnaround and the Seahawks go 15-2 next season, there could be a groundswell of momentum to recognize him as the top coach in the league. But that’s a lot of if’s.
NFL Coach of the Year voting usually favors a coach who transforms a losing team into a winner — not one who just won the Super Bowl.
The top four in the voting this past season were Patriots first-year coach Mike Vrabel, Jaguars first-year coach Liam Coen, Macdonald (because the Seahawks missed the playoffs his first season and then claimed the top seed in the NFC) and Bears first-year coach Ben Johnson.
So that’s the more likely blueprint to picking the next winner.
O’Connell is a prime candidate if the Vikings reassert themselves with Murray at QB. Ditto Brady in Buffalo if the Bills actually play to their full potential and finish as the AFC’s top seed.
But of the 10 new head coaches hired this year, Brady is not our favorite from that pool to end up with this award.
Our three favorites from that group would be Kevin Stefanski with the Atlanta Falcons (with a loaded offense and solid defense in place despite underachieving and missing the playoffs in both seasons under former coach Raheem Morris), John Harbaugh with the New York Giants (proven winner takes over floundering franchise with an intriguing young QB, an elite WR coming back from injury and plenty of defensive talent to work with) and …
His replacement in Baltimore — new Ravens coach and our early pick here, Minter.
Minter’s profile has been rising exponentially in recent years, from winning a national championship at Michigan as Jim Harbaugh’s defensive coordinator, following him to the Los Angeles Chargers and building one of the league’s better defenses there the last two year to now taking over a Ravens team that presently has the third-best odds to win the Super Bowl (per BetMGM).
Minter was on John Harbaugh’s Ravens staff from 2017-20 as a defensive assistant, was a perfect fit to take over the team and now steps in after Baltimore missed the playoffs last year mostly because star QB Lamar Jackson missed four games and never seemed to be at full strength while the defense took a step back.
If Jackson is healthy (and extra motivated to silence some doubters), Derrick Henry is still Derrick Henry and the defense bounces back with newly signed star edge rusher Trey Hendrickson and Minter’s impact, the Ravens could be the top team in the AFC.
Editor's Pick
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