Before Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Stadium, the NFL held its 2026 Honors ceremony at San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts to recognize the season’s top performers. Below are the award winners and the reasons they earned each honor.
Most Valuable Player
Matthew Stafford | QB | Los Angeles Rams
At 37 and in his 17th NFL season, Stafford paced the league with 4,707 passing yards and 46 touchdowns, posting a 5.8 touchdown-to-interception ratio. He finished 313 yards and 15 scores ahead of runner-up Drake Maye. Stafford also produced an eight-game stretch without an interception and threw 28 consecutive touchdown passes — the longest streak of touchdown passes without an interception since play-by-play tracking began in 1978 — cementing a late-career statistical peak that landed him the MVP.
Defensive Player of the Year
Myles Garrett | DE | Cleveland Browns
Garrett set a new single-season sack mark with 23 sacks, eclipsing the record formerly held by Michael Strahan and T.J. Watt. He reached that total despite being double-teamed or chipped on 39.5% of his pass-rush snaps (the highest rate among edge rushers) and added 33 tackles for loss — the second-most since 2000. His blend of relentless pass rush and run disruption made him the obvious DPOY choice.
Offensive Rookie of the Year
Tetairoa McMillan | WR | Carolina Panthers
The No. 8 overall pick turned in a breakout rookie year with 70 receptions on 122 targets for 1,014 yards and seven touchdowns, leading all rookies in receiving yards and setting a Carolina rookie record. McMillan produced 27 explosive catches (16+ yards), the most among rookies, and emerged as a trustworthy fourth-down weapon, elevating Bryce Young by giving him a true No. 1 receiving option.
Protector of the Year (inaugural)
Joe Thuney | G | Chicago Bears
Thuney was the first recipient of the Protector of the Year award after another first-team All-Pro season. The veteran left guard allowed zero sacks, played 99.57% of the Bears’ offensive snaps and led interior linemen in pass-block win rate, sustaining blocks for 2.5 seconds 98% of the time. His consistency helped cut the number of sacks allowed to rookie QB Caleb Williams by 44 compared with Williams’ prior season and played a major role in Chicago’s turnaround to an 11-win season, a division title and a playoff victory.
Comeback Player of the Year
Christian McCaffrey | RB | San Francisco 49ers
After being limited to four games in 2024 because of bilateral Achilles tendinitis and a knee injury, McCaffrey returned to form in 2025. He compiled 2,126 scrimmage yards (second in the NFL) and 17 total touchdowns (third) while starting all 19 games including the playoffs. McCaffrey also led the league with 413 regular-season touches — the most in his nine-year career — and returned as a weekly workhorse and matchup nightmare for defenses.
Coach of the Year
Mike Vrabel | New England Patriots
Vrabel inherited a team that had won just four games each of the previous two seasons and guided the Patriots to a 14-3 regular-season record and a Super Bowl berth. The 10-game improvement tied the best single-season turnaround in NFL history. Vrabel credited cultural shifts, notably a team-building exercise he called the “4 Hs” (history, hero, heartbreak, hope), with creating buy-in and cohesion across the roster.
Defensive Rookie of the Year
Carson Schwesinger | LB | Cleveland Browns
The No. 33 overall pick led all rookies with 146 tackles and added 11 tackles for loss, while tying for third among rookies with two interceptions. A former walk-on at UCLA, Schwesinger served as the Browns’ on-field signal-caller (wearing the green dot) and anchored a defense powered by Garrett’s historic pass rush. His leadership, accuracy as a play-caller and steady production earned him top defensive-rookie honors.
Offensive Player of the Year
Jaxon Smith-Njigba | WR | Seattle Seahawks
Smith-Njigba posted the most productive receiving season in franchise history with 1,793 yards (the NFL lead) and 10 touchdowns, setting Seattle’s single-season receiving-yard mark. He averaged 10.9 yards per target — among the league’s most efficient — while doing it in a run-first offense (47.6% designed rush rate). His peak performance included a 10-catch, 153-yard, two-touchdown outing in the NFC Championship Game that helped propel Seattle to the Super Bowl.
Assistant Coach of the Year
Josh McDaniels | Offensive Coordinator | New England Patriots
Back in New England, McDaniels helped turn Drake Maye into an MVP-caliber passer. Maye led the league in completion percentage (72%), QBR (77.1) and yards per attempt (8.93). McDaniels’ early emphasis on building rapport with Maye and his game-planning were key factors in a Patriots offense that finished third in total yards per game.
Summary
The 2026 NFL Honors celebrated a wide range of standout seasons: Matthew Stafford’s late-career surge earned MVP, Myles Garrett rewrote the sack record for DPOY, rookies Tetairoa McMillan and Carson Schwesinger made immediate impacts, and veterans and coaches such as Christian McCaffrey, Joe Thuney, Mike Vrabel, Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Josh McDaniels were recognized for performances that swung games and shaped their teams’ success heading into Super Bowl LX.