NEW ORLEANS — Saquon Barkley couldn’t make NFL Honors on Thursday night to accept his Offensive Player of the Year award. He has a game to play Sunday.
Barkley’s monster first teason with the Philadelphia Eagles, which will end in Super Bowl LIX on Sunday, now includes the award for the top offensive player in the NFL. Barkley was one of the big winners at NFL Honors on Thursday, the league’s annual awards show.
Offensive Player of the Year is becoming the top non-quarterback award, and there wasn’t much question who would win it.
Barkley rushed for 2,005 yards this season, turning in one of the all-time great seasons a running back ever had in NFL history. He became the sixth straight running back or receiver to win the OPOY award.
Barkley signed with the Eagles as a free agent this offseason after six seasons with the New York Giants. With every 100-yard game for Barkley — there were 14 of them, counting playoffs, including a 255-yard game in Week 12 against the Los Angeles Rams — the Giants’ decision to not sign Barkley to a long-term deal before he hit free agency looked even worse.
Barkley got 35 first-place votes. Lamar Jackson, who finished second, got 12 first-place votes. Derrick Henry, Josh Allen and Joe Burrow got one first-place vote each.
When none of the NFL’s elite pass rushers had a big season, it opened up the door for Surtain to take the league’s top defensive award.
Surtain, who was phenomenal in coverage all season for a Broncos team that made the playoffs for the first time since the 2015 season, won his first career DPOY award.
Surtain is just the second corner cornerback to win DPOY since 2009, joining Stephon Gilmore in 2019.
“This is a surreal feeling honestly,” Surtain said backstage after receiving his award. “This is something I worked for this offseason, I manifested it, and it’s a dream come true.”
Daniels had big moment after big moment as a rookie while he transformed a Commanders franchise.
Daniels announced to the NFL world he had arrived when he completed 21-of-23 passes for 254 yards in a 38-33 upset win over the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday Night Football in Week 3. Daniels also had a Hail Mary touchdown to beat the Chicago Bears with no time on the clock, threw five touchdowns including one with six seconds left to beat the eventual NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles and led playoff wins over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Detroit Lions.
Daniels had 3,568 passing yards, 891 rushing yards and even though other rookies like Caleb Williams and Bo Nix had promising rookie seasons, there was no doubt who was the NFL’s top rookie.
Daniels got 49 of 50 first-place votes, with the other going to Las Vegas Raiders tight end Brock Bowers.
Verse was the 19th pick of the draft and helped the Rams move to their next phase on defense after Aaron Donald’s retirement. Verse had 66 tackles and 4.5 sacks.
He’s the first Rams Defensive Rookie of the Year since Donald in 2014.
Verse got 37 first-place votes, Eagles cornerback Quinyon Mitchell got seven and four other players got one each.
Burrow’s 2023 season ended with a wrist injury but he came back strong. He was an MVP finalist and led the NFL in passing yards and touchdowns.
Burrow also won Comeback Player of the Year in 2021 when he returned from a torn ACL.
