2024 NFL Midseason Award Predictions

We’re already halfway through the 2024 NFL Season and we’ve had some incredible stories across the league thus far. It’s been an exciting start to the year to say the least. Some of those stories are deserving of awards and we’ll be breaking down our predictions for the main award categories at this point in the year. 

MVP: Josh Allen

In a wide open race, the MVP is anyone’s stake to claim. There’s a lot of players who have a good chance at winning this including rookie Jayden Daniels, Sam Darnold in his career turnaround, and Lamar Jackson who’s eyeing a 3rd MVP. With where we’re at right now, Buffalo Bills quarterbacks Josh Allen holds a slight edge on those fellow candidates. Allen has only thrown a single interception on the season and has the Bills actually looking like the dominant team even without star receiver Stefon Diggs on the team. Allen’s held up his side proving that he’s the real deal and has been more consistent this year. If he can keep this up down the stretch and not choke like he’s done in years past, it’s his award to lose. 

Offensive Player of the Year: Derrick Henry

A lot of people including us questioned if Derrick Henry was going to be productive in Baltimore given his age and the presence of Lamar Jackson. We thought it was a good fit to support Lamar as he got older, but those wheels are still kicking and he’s currently the leading rusher in terms of both yards and touchdowns. He’s on pace for 2,000 yards and is averaging a career high 6.5 yards per carry. Henry is dominating his opponents and no other player deserves this award more than him this year. 

Defensive Player of the Year: TJ Watt

At the start of the season, all signs were pointing to Detroit Lions EDGE Rusher Aidan Hutchinson having zero competition for this award. Hutchinson only played in 5 games on the year and had a whopping 7.5 sacks through those games, with 4.5 of them in just one game. Those 7.5 sacks are currently good enough for 3rd in the league, but with his injury knocking him down for the season, someone else is going to come in and snag this award. That leaves a wide open door with multiple people deserving of the award, but we think former NFL Defensive Player of the Year TJ Watt is going to reclaim his title that he last held in 2021. 

Offensive Rookie of the Year: Jayden Daniels

There’s a couple honorable mentions of receivers here in Malik Nabers & Brock Bowers. Both have been leaders on their teams. Despite their good seasons, they don’t come close to how great Jayden Daniels has been. He’s completely changed this Washington franchise around and is even in talks of being MVP for good reason. 

Defensive Rookie of the Year: Jared Verse

With Aaron Donald’s sudden retirement, the Los Angeles Rams had a huge hole to fill on the defensive front. They drafted Jared Verse with low expectations and he isn’t Aaron Donald, but he’s done an exceptional job thus far. Verse is a leader on the Rams defense and we expect great things from him for many years to come. 

Comeback Player of the Year: Kirk Cousins

If Sam Darnold was eligible for this award, he would hands down be the winner of this. Unfortunately he is not eligible which leaves the former Minnesota quarterback in Kirk Cousins to win this award. Cousins is having success with Atlanta as they currently lead the NFC South with a 5-3 record. If he can get the Atlanta Falcons in the playoffs, he’s a lock to win the award. 

Coach of the Year: Dan Quinn

This is one of the tighter races this year and there’s 3 coaches that also need to be mentioned here in Dan Campbell, Kevin O’Connell & Sean Payton. All 3 could also end up winning this award, but if the season were to end today, we would give it to Dan Quinn. Campbell has the Lions with the best record in NFC, O’Connell got past losing his starting quarterback to start 5-0, & Payton has 5 wins on the year for a team who’s over/under was 5.5 for the year. Quinn is in a similar status to all of those names where Washington was supposed to be amongst the league’s worst, but currently sit atop the NFC East and have a 6-2 record. Not only has Daniels done an incredible job on the field, but from a play calling standpoint, it was evident in coaching ability with the hail mary, that Quinn taught his team how to execute one and they did it successfully. If Washington can finish with a winning record, Quinn is the frontrunner for the award.