At first blush, the new guidance provided to voters on the AP Comeback Player of the Year Award ensures that the prize will go only to players who missed time in the prior year due to injury or illness. The details of the revised standard raise a fair question.
Has anything really changed?
Here’s the new language: “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.”
So the player who wins the prize must show “resilience” (not necessarily excellence or even consistent performance) against “adversity” by overcoming “illness” or “physical injury” or — and this is the important part — “other circumstances that led him to miss playing time the previous season.”
The only clear, objective portion of this test is that the player must have missed playing time the prior season. So if, for example, a good player has a down year and plays all 17 games, he can’t be comeback player of the year if he’s suddenly good again the next year.
If, for example, Russell Wilson had played all 17 games in 2023, he wouldn’t be eligible if he suddenly plays like Mr. Unliiiiimited in Pittsburgh. Because he was benched for the last two games due to his contract (the team denied that, but c’mon), he experienced “other circumstances that led him to miss playing time the previous season.”
Really, anyone who didn’t play 17 games the prior season could easily fit in that category. Joe Flacco, who won it last year over Damar Hamlin, was a backup the prior year. That would arguably be an “other circumstance” that caused Flacco to miss playing time. Geno Smith, who won it the prior year (and whose victory sparked the push for clarification) had been a backup for seven straight seasons, with only three starts (due to Wilson injury) in 2021.
Given this oversized load of a loophole, the best way to truly ensure that the Comeback Player of the Year Award will go to someone who overcame injury or illness in the prior year would be to create a separate award for Most Improved Player. That would give voters who want to recognize someone who went from playing poorly to playing much better or not playing because he was on the bench to playing well.
There’s no reason to not do it. The league, which has made the AP awards the official NFL awards, surely wouldn’t mind adding another trophy to the NFL Honors ceremony. And the league’s various sports book partners surely wouldn’t mind having another category for futures wagers. (Because the house always wins.)
That’s really the best way to truly clear this up. This week’s change, at the end of the day, only blocks players who played all 17 games in the prior season. Having a path to recognize a Flacco or a Geno or a Russell Wilson (if he thrives in Pittsburgh) would ensure that a player like Damar Hamlin — who clearly showed “resilience in the face of adversity by overcoming . . . physical injury” in 2024 (but who played in only five games and participated in 17 snaps on defense and 94 on special teams) — would have been the runaway winner.