Not anymore, anyway
With the renaissance that Sam Darnold has had over the first five games of this season with the Minnesota Vikings, his name has been attached to several awards in this early part of the season. One of those awards is the Comeback Player of the Year Award, but apparently he won’t be winning that one no matter how good a season he has in 2024.
Last year, the NFL “clarified” the criteria for the Comeback Player of the Year Award as follows:
The spirit of the AP Comeback Player of the Year award is to honor a player who has demonstrated resilience in the face of adversity by overcoming illness, physical injury or other circumstances that led him to miss playing time the previous season. The decision to provide this guidance was made last December but could not be implemented for the 2023 awards because the season was almost completed.
I’m not sure why the league couldn’t have implemented those changes to the award voting, to be honest.
The NFL seems to have made this “clarification” in light of the Comeback Player of the Year Award last year being given to Joe Flacco, who signed with the Cleveland Browns in midseason last year and started five games for the Browns, leading them to a 4-1 record in those starts while throwing 13 touchdowns and eight interceptions. Flacco won the award over players like Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin, who came back from having his heart literally stop on the field.
That sort of thing probably wasn’t a great look for the league, so they decided to change the criteria to make sure that it wouldn’t happen again. While it’s probably the right thing to do in the actual spirit of the award, it does work to Darnold’s detriment when it comes to winning that award for this season.
So, if Darnold maintains his level of play, he could wind up being the Offensive Player of the Year or even the Most Valuable Player. But he won’t be winning the Comeback Player of the Year Award, no matter what level of play he maintains.
