While the Cleveland Browns were the big winners at NFL Honors on Thursday night with four individual awards for the 2023 season, the Miami Dolphins were shut out.
In terms of the balloting, it was wide receiver Tyreek Hill who had the best showing for Miami, coming in sixth in the NFL MVP race and second for Offensive Player of the Year.
Hill lost out on the OPOY award to San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey, who was (pardon the pun) a runaway winner, with 222 points to Hill’s 139 based on a 5-3-1 scoring system for each of the 50 voters’ top three selections.
Hill, who became the first player in NFL history with a second consecutive 1,700-yard season, got seven first-place votes to McCaffrey’s 39 and was on all but three of the 50 ballots.
In the MVP race, where voters ranked their choices 1 through 5, Hill got two second-place votes, sixth for third, nine for fourth and 14 for fifth, as one of 10 players mentioned at least once.
Baltimore Ravens QB Lamar Jackson was a near-unanimous MVP selection, earning 49 of the 50 first-place votes. The other went to Buffalo Bills QB Josh Allen, who came in fifth in the vote totals.
The rest of the top five had Dallas Cowboys QB Dak Prescott second, McCaffrey third and 49ers QB Brock Purdy in fourth place.
Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was among the finalists for the AP Comeback Player of the Year award, but he wound up a distant fifth behind surprise winner Joe Flacco of the Browns, presumptive favorite Damar Hamlin of the Bills, Baker Mayfield of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Matthew Stafford of the Los Angeles Rams.
Head coach Mike McDaniel, meanwhile, was among the 12 coaches to get a vote for NFL Coach of the Year, which went to Cleveland’s Kevin Stefanski in the most closely contested award.
Using the 3-2-1 voting system, Stefanski and Houston’s DeMeco Ryans each finished with 165 points, but Stefanski won the award by virtue of being first on 21 ballots compared to 20 for Ryans.
For the Offensive Rookie of the Year award, eight players got one of the three votes from the selectors, including winner C.J. Stroud of the Houston Texans.
One player who did not get votes, and a bit surprisingly so, was Dolphins running back De’Von Achane. One would have thought he’d get at least some mention after setting an NFL single-season record for players with at least 100 carries with his 7.8 rushing average, not to mention his 11 total touchdowns (tied for first among rookies with Detroit Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs).
Among former Dolphins who got votes, former Miami head coach Brian Flores got three third-place votes to come in eighth in the Assistant Coach of the Year race, while Dan Campbell came in third for Coach of the Year.
THE COMPLETE LIST OF 2023 NFL AWARD WINNERS
NFL MVP — QB Lamar Jackson, Baltimore
NFL Coach of the Year — Kevin Stefanski, Cleveland
Offensive Player of the Year — RB Christian McCaffrey, San Francisco
Defensive Player of the Year — DE Myles Garrett, Cleveland
Comeback Player of the Year — QB Joe Flacco, Cleveland
Offensive Rookie of the Year — QB C.J. Stroud, Houston
Defensive Rookie of the Year — LB Will Anderson, Houston
Assistant Coach of the Year — Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, Cleveland
Walter Payton Man of the Year — DL Cam Heyward, Pittsburgh
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