Jaguars defensive lineman Arik Armstead was recognized for making a significant impact on his community with the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award.
Fullback C.J. Ham was the Vikings' nominee for the award. Ham, who is from Duluth, and his wife, Stephanie, have supported a number of regional organizations and causes since Ham signed with the Vikings as an undrafted free agent out of Augustana University in 2016.
Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen edged two-time winner Lamar Jackson for the Most Valuable Player award.
Allen received 27 first-place votes to Jackson’s 23 and finished with 383 points. Jackson had 362 points.
Eagles running back Saquon Barkley, who won AP Offensive Player of the Year earlier in the evening, was third with 120 points.
The football world continues to basically say “whoops, our bad” for having zero faith in Kevin O’Connell’s absolute trust in Sam Darnold.
The Associated Press’ 50-member selection committee, which includes this reporter, bestowed the most prestigious NFL Coach of the Year award upon the Vikings head coach during the NFL Honors show inside Saenger Theater tonight.
Hall of Famer Bud Grant, who won 56 years ago on his way to Super Bowl IV, is the only other Vikings coach to win the AP award.
The award was voted on two days after the regular season ended with the Vikings losing the NFC North division and the NFC’s No. 1 seed to Detroit at Ford Field. Voters, however, looked past that and focused instead on how O’Connell, known as a quarterback whisperer, took a seven-year journeyman, failed former No. 3 overall pick and proverbial punchline and built him into a 14-game winner, fringe MVP candidate and one of the league’s best quarterbacks through 17 weeks.
O’Connell had 361 points and 25 first-place votes. Detroit's Dan Campbell was second with 283 points and 19 first-place votes. Kansas City's Andy Reid was third with 119 points and four first-place votes.
The award was presented by Bill Belichick, O'Connell's former coach with the Patriots, and Deion Sanders.
Jared Allen’s long, hard wait has ended in the Big Easy.
Allen’s recognition as one of the most relentless edge rushers league history finally arrived tonight at the Saenger Theater as he became a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s four-person Class of 2025. The sheer joy and exhale of exhaustion comes in Allen’s fifth year of eligibility, fifth year as a finalist and one year after he admitted to being “hugely disappointed and shocked” by a selection process that had left the four-time first-team All-Pro hanging as peers at his position leapfrogged him in fewer years of eligibility.
“It’s been a long time coming, but it’s still the greatest honor there is,” said Allen, who learned of his selection when Hall of Fame president Jim Porter and now-fellow Vikings Hall of Famer Steve Hutchinson knocked on his door in Nashville late last week.
Joining Allen in this year’s class are Eagles cornerback Eric Allen, Chargers tight end Antonio Gates and seniors candidate and Packers receiver Sterling Sharpe. Changes in the process this year resulted in the 49 selectors, including this reporter, choosing the smallest class since four were selected in 2005. And no first-ballot finalists were chosen.
The past two NFL Honors shows have featured viral moments from Kirk Cousins. But Vikings safeties Cam Bynum and Josh Metellus were the viral video stars of the NFL season with their choreographed celebrations, and they did a “dance off” on stage tonight against three players from the audience. Then all five performed to "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" from "Dirty Dancing" before announcing Rams defensive end Jared Verse as defensive rookie of the year.
Enough AP voters chose Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold as their NFL Comeback Player of the Year that he was announced as one of the five finalists. Darnold, however, fell short of winning, perhaps because the AP issued this sentence as guidance to voters after it was deemed that some recent winners – mainly Geno Smith and Joe Flacco -- didn’t meet the award’s intent: “The spirit of the 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.”
Left to interpret Darnold’s “other circumstances” and contemplate the fact he was active for all 20 games as a 49ers backup in 2023, voters chose Bengals quarterback Joe Burrowas this season’s winner.
Burrow, who had wrist surgery in 2023, got 370 points and 31 of 50 first-place votes. Chargers running back J.K. Dobbins was second (195 points, 3 first-place votes), and Darnold was third (102 points, 8 first-place votes).
The award was presented by former Vikings great Randy Moss, a previous winner, who appeared on video as he undergoes treatment for cancer. Vikings receiver Justin Jefferson introduced Moss.