Tennessee Titans running back Derrick Henry and Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald were named the NFL’s offensive and defensive players of the year at Saturday’s NFL Honors awards show.
Henry won with 32 out of a possible 50 votes conducted by a nationwide panel of the media, easily winning over Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who each got five votes.
Donald received 27 out of the 50 votes, edging out Pittsburgh’s T.J. Watt, who got 20 votes.
Henry turned in the NFL’s fifth-highest single-season rushing total with 2,027 yards. He also rushed for 17 touchdowns, becoming the sixth player in NFL history to lead the league outright in rushing yards and touchdowns in back-to-back seasons.
Henry is just the third running back to win offensive player of the year since 2010 and the first since Ezekiel Elliott in 2017.
Donald won defensive player of the year for the third time in four years, also winning for the 2017 and 2018 seasons. He joined Lawrence Taylor and J.J. Watt as the only players to win the award three times since it was first presented in 1971.
Donald led all players with 54 pressures this season, according to ESPN Stats & Information research. He also led the league for the third straight season in pass rush win rate as an interior defensive linemen (24.2%), despite being double-teamed on 65.7% of his pass rushes (third-highest rate in league).
Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert and Washington defensive end Chase Young were the NFL’s top rookies, winning offensive and defensive rookie of the year awards.
Herbert and Young both were clear winners in the voting. Herbert got 41 votes, while Minnesota receiver Justin Jefferson was runner-up with nine votes. Young received 42.5 votes, and Carolina safety Jeremy Chinn was second with 4.5.
Herbert was the sixth overall pick in the 2020 NFL draft and threw for 4,336 yards and 31 touchdowns — a single-season rookie record — in 15 games.
“Thank you to the Chargers organization, the Spanos Family, Tom Telesco and [former] coach Anthony Lynn for taking a chance on a kid from Eugene, Oregon,” Herbert said in a recorded video message. “Without them, none of this is possible. While it’s an incredible honor just to be in the conversation for this award, I know it’s not possible without my teammates.”
Young was the second overall pick in the draft and posted 7.5 sacks, four forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries, something only 2003 defensive rookie of the year Terrell Suggs (2003) has done as a rookie over the last 20 seasons.
“It definitely wasn’t the rookie season I expected just with the pandemic and everything going on,” Young said.
Kevin Stefanski, who led the Cleveland Browns to their first winning season since 2007 and their first playoff appearance since 2002 (and first postseason win since 1994), was the coach of the year.
Stefanski received 25 of 50 votes. Buffalo’s Sean McDermott (7) finished second, and Miami’s Brian Flores (7) was third.
Washington quarterback Alex Smith, who suffered a broken fibula and tibia followed by 17 surgeries because of infections that nearly cost him his right leg, was named comeback player of the year.
Smith nearly swept the voting, receiving 49 votes, while Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger got one vote.
Smith went 5-1 as a starter this season to help Washington make the playoffs.
“Two years ago I was sitting a wheelchair wondering, ‘Had the life I had known changed forever?'” Smith said in a recorded acceptance speech. “Anger, pity, self-doubt, why me? These were feelings I had at certain points throughout my career, but this time it wasn’t about football. It was bigger. It was about me being a father to play with my children, a husband to go on walks with my wife and despite my new limitations, me getting my life back.
“My goal was football not because I thought it was a reality but because I knew my life would be better because of it. … It took 728 days, 728 of small victories and major setbacks, of countless hours of physical therapy and just as many sleepless nights.”
