Who took home the league’s biggest awards?
The NFL held its annual awards show Saturday in Miami, the site of Super Bowl LIV where the Kansas City Chiefs will face the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday (6:30 p.m. ET, Fox).
Here’s a look at who took home the awards and why:
Lamar Jackson, QB, Baltimore Ravens: Jackson proved to be the NFL’s most valuable, surprising and thrilling player in 2019. Coming off a rookie season facing skepticism on whether he would develop into an NFL-level passer, Jackson produced one of the best seasons ever by an NFL quarterback and reshaped the game’s most important position. He became the first player in league history to total more than 3,000 yards passing and 1,000 yards rushing in the same season, beating defenses with a strong arm in the red zone and jaw-dropping runs in the open field. He led the NFL with 36 touchdown passes and finished third in passer rating (113.3). Jackson continued to strike fear with his speed and elusiveness, breaking Michael Vick’s single-season record for rushing yards by a quarterback (1,206). In April 2018, Jackson was the 32nd and final pick of the first round. Just 21 months later, he became the youngest quarterback to ever win NFL MVP. –– Jamison Hensley
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Michael Thomas, WR, New Orleans Saints: Jerry Rice and Michael Thomas. That’s the entire list of wide receivers to ever win the Associated Press’ Offensive Player of the Year award now that “Can’t Guard Mike” ended a 25-year drought. Thomas did it by setting a NFL record with 149 catches for the New Orleans Saints (six more than Marvin Harrison’s previous record, set in 2002). Thomas also had a league-high 1,725 receiving yards, led all NFL receivers with a catch rate of 80.5 percent and caught nine touchdowns. He was the go-to guy for two different quarterbacks, since backup Teddy Bridgewater went 5-0 as a starter while Drew Brees was hurt early in the season. If Lamar Jackson hadn’t been so dominant this year, Thomas would have had a strong case to become the first receiver ever to win the league’s MVP award. “Has anybody done what he’s doing? In history?” Brees said while making that case earlier this year. “Fastest to 400 [career] receptions, all that stuff, right? So when you’re the first to do something, I think that should grab people’s attention.” — Mike Triplett
Stephon Gilmore, CB, New England Patriots: Gilmore finished tied for first in the NFL with six interceptions, two of which he returned for touchdowns. He regularly was called upon to match up against the opponent’s best receiver, and his 20 passes defended were best in the NFL. Gilmore had some struggles against Dolphins receiver DeVante Parker in the season finale — after which he said he felt like he let his teammates down — but that wasn’t reflective of the overall season he put together, which included 53 tackles and a fumble recovery. Gilmore was named first-team All-Pro, and voted to the third Pro Bowl of his eight-year career. — Mike Reiss
Kyler Murray, QB, Arizona Cardinals: Murray was the second rookie in NFL history to throw for more than 3,500 yards and run for more than 500 yards in a season. Murray’s numbers — 3,722 yards, 20 touchdown passes, eight games with multiple touchdown throws and a completion percentage of 63.4 — were also good enough to make him a Pro Bowl alternate. Murray, the first overall pick in 2019, started all 16 games for the Cardinals, helping revive an offense that was all but dead in 2018. He matured and developed as the season progressed, as was exemplified by his NFL rookie record of 211 consecutive pass attempts without an interception. — Josh Weinfuss
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Nick Bosa, DE, San Francisco 49ers: The 49ers had an instant game-changer in Bosa when they used the No. 2 overall pick on him last April. Bosa finished the regular season with 47 tackles, nine sacks, two fumble recoveries and an interception. His 60 quarterback pressures ranked second in the league and his 16 tackles for loss were tied for fifth as he earned a spot as a starter in the Pro Bowl. Bosa has established himself as one of the league’s best pass-rushers and a foundational piece for the 49ers. “He’s very polished,” defensive coordinator Robert Saleh said. “He’s already beyond his years and he’s only going to get better. That’s probably the biggest thing that sets him apart.” — Nick Wagoner
Ryan Tannehill, QB, Tennessee Titans: After Tannehill missed five games in 2018 with the Miami Dolphins because of a shoulder injury, Miami decided to go in a different direction and traded Tannehill to the Titans, paying $5 million of his guaranteed $7 million in the process. Tannehill’s resurgence after being inserted into the starting lineup in Week 7 against the Los Angeles Chargers helped produced a 7-3 record and run to the AFC Championship Game. The eighth-year quarterback finished with 2,742 passing yards, 22 touchdowns and six interceptions in 10 games. His 117.5 passer rating was tops in the NFL. Tannehill became the third quarterback since 1991 to finish the regular season with an overall and red-zone completion percentage of better than 70%. (The others were New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees with 74.4% in 2018 and San Francisco 49ers quarterback Steve Young with 70.3% in 1994.) –– Turron Davenport
John Harbaugh, Baltimore Ravens: Harbaugh went from being on the hot seat in the middle of the 2018 season to being saluted as the league’s top coach. He led the Ravens to a franchise-record 14 wins and their first No. 1 seed with an outside-the-box offense highlighting quarterback Lamar Jackson and a defense that lost three core Pro Bowl leaders in Terrell Suggs, Eric Weddle and C.J. Mosley. Relying on his aggressiveness – from going for it on fourth downs on offense to leading the league in blitzes — Harbaugh took a team that was predicted to finish third in the AFC North and guided it to the best record in the NFL. This is the first Coach of the Year award for Harbaugh, who finished his 12th season. He’s the first Ravens coach to receive this honor. – Jamison Hensley