If you want to get technical, the midway point of the NFL season was last week. But better late than never, right?
This year’s crop of NFL midseason award winners — with a bunch of names that are familiar to this list and a handful that are not — are more than deserving of a quick curtain call as the stretch run begins.
Some races are close and will remain that way for the final eight weeks of the season. Others are runaways, which is why we expect much of the final AP vote in February to look very similar to PFN’s 2024 Midseason Awards.
And that begins with MVP.
Most Valuable Player
Lamar Jackson, QB, Baltimore Ravens
Lamar Jackson is the best regular-season quarterback of this decade and arguably the NFL’s best since Peyton Manning. While there are fair criticisms about his performance in the playoffs (Jackson is 2-4 with as many touchdowns as interceptions), the Baltimore Ravens QB is simply unstoppable from September through January.
That standard has continued in 2024, which is why he was the runaway midseason MVP among PFN’s panel of experts.
This is a year in which it doesn’t matter if your criteria for MVP is the league’s best player or most valuable to his team.
Here are our QB+ grades through the early slate of games in Week 10. 👀 pic.twitter.com/DbycYdGTYX
— Pro Football Network (@PFN365) November 10, 2024
Jackson has been both. He has had an otherworldly first 10 games to his season. The list of statistical categories in which he leads the league is longer than a Wire marathon:
- Touchdown passes (24)
- Touchdown rate (8.3%)
- Yards per attempt (9.3)
- Adjusted yards per attempt (10.6)
- Passer rating (123.2)
- QBR (76.9)
But those numbers don’t adequately capture how good Jackson has been during the Ravens’ 7-3 start.
He’s the only player since 2019 to achieve a perfect 100/100 score in PFN’s QB+ metric and just one of three to have an A+ season grade. Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes in 2020 were the others.
According to the database, no quarterback has been better from a clean pocket and in clutch situations since 2019. Jackson is also responsible for three of the 10 best single-game performances of the season.
And while he doesn’t run the ball as much as he once did (he’s averaging a career-low 9.1 attempts per game), Jackson still provides his offense 53.8 rushing yards on average each week.
Most importantly: Jackson saves his best for last. He leads the NFL in fourth-quarter touchdown passes (seven), first downs (47), and passer rating (121.3).
While Buffalo Bills QB Josh Allen is having an excellent season — and arguably his best as a pro (Allen’s 4.3-1 TD:INT ratio is a career high) — Jackson has simply been in another class in terms of his value to his team.
The nation saw Jackson at his very best in the Ravens’ thrilling Week 10 win over the Cincinnati Bengals. He rallied the Ravens back from a 14-point second-half deficit by directing touchdown drives in each of Baltimore’s final four non-kneel-down possessions of the game.
If there is a glimmer of hope for Allen (or even Mahomes, who’s a distant third in the MVP race currently) to get back into it, it’s this:
Jackson’s task is about to get much tougher.
Six of the Ravens’ final seven opponents rank in the top 10 in DEF+. Baltimore faced just two such teams in its first 10 games.
Honorable mention: Allen, Mahomes, Kyler Murray
Coach of the Year
Dan Quinn, Washington Commanders
Dan Quinn is PFN’s 2024 Midseason Coach of the Year, and his success in his first 10 games in charge of the Washington Commanders should serve as a reminder that the pundit class really doesn’t know as much as we think we do.
Remember that Quinn’s hiring in Washington was panned as a last-resort flop when it happened.
Not to pick on our Dallas Robinson, who’s really smart and really good at his job, but PFN’s national NFL writer ranked Quinn eighth out of eight hires that cycle, behind Brian Callahan (whose Titans are 2-7), Jerod Mayo (whose Patriots are 3-7), Antonio Pierce (whose Raiders are 2-7), and Dave Canales (whose Panthers are 3-7).
Quinn has had not just the most impressive start of this class, but of any coach in the league.
He has transformed a 13-loss 2023 Commanders team into a division-title contender. The Commanders needed just nine games to surpass their preseason win total line (6.5). They have consistently exceeded expectations, going 7-2-1 against the spread. Only the Lions have a better +/- ATS (+7.4).
And Quinn has done it with a rookie quarterback (Jayden Daniels) and an offensive coordinator that took the job with an endless list of doubters (Kliff Kingsbury).
Daniels, the No. 2 pick in April’s draft, has been a franchise-changer. The Commanders have scored 23 or more points in seven of their first 10 games after doing so just six times in all of 2023.
The Commanders were a bottom-10 offense in 2023, but they rank in the top five in 2024 in points (29 per game), total offense (377 YPG), rushing offense (153.5 YPG), yards per play (six), and yards per pass (7.8).
But it isn’t just the Commanders’ offense that has made leaps.
The improvements have been across the board.
The Commanders allowed the most points (30.5), total yards (388.9), and passing yards (262.2) per game in 2023. And while improvements on defense are still needed, that side of the ball is no longer a disaster.
After ranking last in turnover margin in 2023 (-14), they are tied for seventh entering Week 11 (+6).
Earlier this season, Dan Quinn utilized Navy SEALs to help set culture and weekly messaging for the Commanders. @JayGlazer tells the story: pic.twitter.com/PIutKD6KlS
— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) November 10, 2024
Yet Quinn’s biggest impact has been unquantifiable. He’s helped change the vibe around a franchise that had been toxic for so long. Certainly, booting Dan Snyder to the curb helped.
But a new owner with the same terrible product would not have re-energized a long-dormant fanbase.
Is it sustainable?
It should be. The Commanders will enter Week 11 as the NFC’s sixth seed and just a half-game back of the Eagles for the NFC East lead. Washington and Philadelphia play twice down the stretch, but the only other team left on the Commanders’ schedule that currently has a winning record is the Atlanta Falcons (6-4).
That’s why Washington has a whopping 83.6% chance of returning to the postseason for the first time since 2024, per PFN’s Playoff Predictor.
Offensive Player of the Year
Derrick Henry, RB, Baltimore Ravens
Derrick Henry at age 30 might be the best version of Derrick Henry we’ve ever seen.
Certainly, the Baltimore Ravens’ ageless running back has been the NFL’s best non-quarterback skill position player in 2024.
That’s why he is PFN’s worthy 2024 Midseason Offensive Player of the Year award winner.
Henry’s stats defy logic, regardless of age.
Through 10 games, the future Hall of Fame leads the NFL in carries (184), rushing yards (1,120), yards per carry (6.1), rushing touchdowns (12), scrimmage yards (1,216), and offensive touchdowns (14).
While he probably won’t eclipse the absurd 2,027 rushing yards he posted in 2020, an argument can be made that what he’s doing this year is even more impressive. He’s averaging a full yard per carry more now than he did then.
And he’s taken the Ravens’ rushing attack to another level. Since Jackson entered the scene, Baltimore has dependably been an effective ground team. But the Ravens average eight-tenths of a yard more per carry this year than they did last.
“He’s one of a kind,” John Harbaugh said earlier this season. “He’s one of one.”
It’s best not to compare Henry’s production to his contemporaries, but to the greats.
In just eight and a half seasons, Henry has climbed to eighth on the all-time rushing touchdowns list (102). He ranks 25th on the career rushing list (10,622) and will likely move into the top 20 by year’s end.
But this is no lifetime achievement award. He’s an old man dominating the kids in a young man’s game.
The average age of an NFL running back is somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 years old. Henry will turn 31 before the season ends.
And yet, he has the NFL’s longest run of the season (an 87-yard touchdown rumble against the Buffalo Bills in Week 4) and has three carries of 50 or more yards on the year.
DERRICK FREAKIN' HENRY!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/xhYv0apEQu
— NFL (@NFL) September 30, 2024
In the course of his 81-yard jaunt against the Buccaneers, Henry reached a max speed of 21.7 miles per hour — making him the sixth-fastest ball carrier of the season’s first 10 weeks.
The five players he trails — Jaguars WR Brian Thomas Jr., Lions RB Jahmyr Gibbs, Eagles RB Saquon Barkley, Texans WR Nico Collins, and Vikings WR Jordan Addison — are all age 27 or younger.
Finally, Henry has by far the highest rush yards over expectation (399) on the year. Barkley is a distant second (264).
Again, Henry is doing unnatural things on the football field.
And while a MOPOY case could be certainly made for Bengals receiver Ja’Marr Chase (who leads the NFL with 66 catches, 981 receiving yards, and 10 touchdowns), Henry is in a class his own so far this year.
Honorable mention: Jackson, Chase, Barkley
Defensive Player of the Year
T.J. Watt, EDGE, Pittsburgh Steelers
T.J. Watt is on an all-time heater. A seventh straight Pro Bowl nod is in the bag for the Pittsburgh Steelers’ excellent edge rusher, and even more could be in store.
For now, the 30-year-old star outside linebacker will have to settle for PFN’s 2024 Midseason Defensive Player of the Year honors.
Watt — who in just seven and a half seasons ranks 37th on the all-time sack list (103) — is the heartbeat of a Steelers defense that again is among the NFL’s best. Pittsburgh leads the AFC North with a 7-2 record through the first 10 weeks of the NFL season.
And while it’s a more balanced roster than in years past, the defense still leads the way.
Game. Wrecker. @_TjWatt pic.twitter.com/t8hOwFCED9
— NFL (@NFL) October 29, 2024
The Steelers haven’t allowed 30 points in a game once this year, and opposing teams have put up 20 or more on them just three times.
Pittsburgh enters Week 11 ranked second in scoring (16.2 points per game against), fourth in yards per carry (87.1), and seventh in DEF+ (85.1) and EPA per play (-.080).
And Watt has been a one-man game-wrecker. His four forced fumbles (in nine games) lead the league. His 10 tackles for loss are tied for seventh. Watt also has two recovered fumbles and has three passes defensed.
“It is special,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said of Watt’s excellence. “I’m not surprised by it but it doesn’t make it any less amazing.”
While much has been made of Watt’s sack total being down a tick (he’s got 6.5 on the year, good for 12th in the league), he’s still getting consistent pressure on the quarterback.
Watt’s 18 quarterback hits are tied for second. He is ninth among EDGEs in pass rush win rate (20%) on the year.
Now, it should be said that Watt doesn’t have a second DPOY award in the bag. The competition is fierce this year. Bengals defensive end Trey Hendrickson already has 11 sacks and a much better pressure rate (19.3% to 8.5% for Watt).
But Watt gets the nod because the Bengals’ defense as a whole has not been good. Cincinnati on the year has allowed the seventh-most points (26.2 per game).
If Watt is the AP DPOY for the second time in four years, he will absolutely have earned it. Six of Steelers’ final eight opponents are divisional foes. Six of their last eight games are against teams that rank in the top 11 league-wide in pass-block win rate.
Two of those six games are against the Baltimore Ravens. The matchups between Watt and PFN Midseason MVP Lamar Jackson in Weeks 11 and 16 will be must-see television.
Honorable mention: Hendrickson, Dexter Lawrence, Brian Branch
Comeback Player of the Year
Kirk Cousins, QB, Atlanta Falcons
Captain Kirk has become Comeback Kirk in 2024.
Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins is the 2024 PFN Midseason Comeback Player of the Year, earning eight of 11 votes from our panel of experts.
Exactly one year ago, Cousins was in the first days of recovery from a torn Achilles that coincided with his contract year.
Now, he’s the NFL’s No. 13 quarterback according to PFN’s proprietary QB+ metric and the man under center for a Falcons team that enters Week 11 as the NFC’s No. 3 seed.
Cousins, 36, has completed 68.2% of his passes and thrown 17 touchdowns to just eight interceptions for the 6-4 Falcons. Five of Atlanta’s wins have been by one score, and Cousins has been solid in crunch time.
What a night! pic.twitter.com/Aocg2idsnr
— Kirk Cousins (@KirkCousins8) October 4, 2024
On third and fourth downs this year, he has thrown nine touchdowns to one interception and averaged 7.9 yards per attempt for a passer rating of 118.2.
And while he insists that he’s fully recovered from reconstructive surgery, Cousins won’t win many NFL footraces. He ran a 4.93-second 40 coming out of Michigan State and certainly hasn’t gotten any faster.
“I feel good,” Cousins said earlier this season. “I think being a pocket passer, and I’ve talked to some retired quarterbacks and asked them, do I need to be a scrambler to maintain production in this league, because there are so many talented running quarterbacks?
“The feedback I got was, no. You’re always going to have to do it from the pocket. Be accurate. That’s the key.
“So that’s kind of the way I’ve always played. I think it sets me up well as I get older to be able to still do it even if my body isn’t at its best, because standing back there from the pocket, you know, you don’t have to be quite the same athlete.”
In Atlanta, Cousins has picked up largely where he left off in Minnesota last year. He has a better success rate (47.3% to 46.6%) and a higher yards-per-attempts average (7.9 to 7.5) despite losing as his go-to target arguably the best receiver in football in Justin Jefferson.
Should Cousins continue playing like he has, it could make for a tough organizational decision at the quarterback position. Just weeks after signing Cousins to a four-year, $180 million free agent contract last spring, the Falcons drafted Michael Penix Jr. in the first round.
But the Falcons seem inclined to roll with Cousins as long as he’s producing.
“The only person that sets that time frame will be Kirk,” Falcons coach Raheem Morris said on the Rich Eisen Show recently. “As long as he continues to play at the high level that he’s playing, we won’t have to worry about that, and neither will the world.”
Honorable mention: Russell Wilson, Joe Burrow, Sam Darnold
Offensive Rookie of the Year
Jayden Daniels, QB, Washington Commanders
Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels hasn’t just had the best start to the season of any 2024 rookie.
He’s had one of the best rookie seasons — period — of any first-year quarterback in recent memory. So it’s fair to say that PFN Midseason Offensive Rookie of the Year won’t be the last honor the NFL Draft‘s second overall pick will receive this year.
Daniels has been a one-man organization changer for the Commanders. The Washington franchise moved on from Kirk Cousins after the 2017 season. Relatedly, that was the last time the team had a scoring offense in the top 20.
But that will almost certainly change in 2024. Daniels has taken the DMV — and the NFL — by storm. A Day 1 starter for Quinn’s team, he has been electric.
His 89.4 QB+ rating (for a B+ grade) isn’t just the best among rookies, it’s fifth overall.
The 2023 Heisman Trophy winner has Washington off to a 7-3 start, throwing nine touchdowns and two interceptions and averaging 8.2 yards per attempt. (He’s had four games with a completion percentage of 70% or higher.)
He’s also gained 464 yards and four touchdowns on 85 carries, meaning that he’s 12th in the league in passing yards (2,147) and 27th in rushing yards (464).
A;FK;JD;KJF;LAKEJFLKJVAL;KEJL;JF;EFJ;LFAKJ
JAYDEN DANIELS HAIL MARY! @COMMANDERS WIN! pic.twitter.com/BsQ0Z84Rko
— NFL (@NFL) October 27, 2024
And it already has a signature moment in his young career, connecting with Noah Brown on the last play of regulation to deliver a miracle victory over the Chicago Bears in Week 8.
Daniels isn’t just the frontrunner to win end-of-year OROY. In the words of Ernie McCracken, to lose the award he’d need to “get drunk, fall down, and hurt [himself]” to even have a chance of losing.
Daniels was one of six quarterbacks selected in the first round of the 2024 draft. He’s the only one of six that you can say with a high degree of certainty will be a good (and potentially great) long-term player.
Through 10 weeks, he’s first in his draft class in passer rating (101.7), completion percentage (68.7%), passing yards (2,147), and yards per attempt.
Fittingly, the OROY race is a complete runaway in the eyes of the betting public. Daniels is a whopping -3000 to win. The next closest is Broncos QB Bo Nix (+1200), followed by Patriots QB Drake Maye (+2500), Jaguars WR Brian Thomas Jr. (+2500), and Cardinals WR Marvin Harrison Jr. (+4000).
The truth is, however, that Daniels should be compared not to his peers, but to the best rookie quarterbacks in recent memory.
Since 2016, Daniels ranks first in completion percentage, is tied for first with 2021’s C.J. Stroud in yards per attempt, and is second only to 2016 Dak Prescott in passer rating (104.9).
Honorable mention: Nix, Maye, Thomas
Defensive Rookie of the Year
Jared Verse, EDGE, Los Angeles Rams
Those who thought Jared Verse would be the most NFL-ready defensive player in the 2024 NFL Draft due to his age (24 this month) and his experience (five collegiate seasons) have been proven right.
But he’s been even better in his first nine games than could have been reasonably expected at the time.
Verse showed the country in the Los Angeles Rams’ Week 10 game against the Miami Dolphins that he’s got far more going for him than experience.
He had a strip sack, two total tackles for loss, and a fumble recovery in a game in which the Rams’ offense let down its defense.
#Rams rookie Jared Verse now has a sack in 3 straight games, bringing his season total to 4.5, most among all rookies this season. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/4qRuUDtIhd
— Pro Football Network (@PFN365) November 12, 2024
Verse has been a plug-and-play starter for the Rams. His participation rate (76%) through nine games is sixth highest among any Los Angeles defender.
And he’s made the most of his opportunities.
Verse (19th overall pick) was the third pass rusher off the board in April (behind Laiatu Latu, 15th, and Dallas Turner, 17th).
But he’s first in his rookie class in sacks (4.5), pressures (44), quarterback hits (15), hurries (28), and pressure rate (20.2%).
What makes the Rams’ future so bright?
They drafted not just the best, but perhaps the top two pass rushers of this year’s class. Twenty picks after taking Verse out of Florida State in the first round, they selected Michigan’s Braden Fiske, who has also been excellent.
Fiske is second among rookies in sacks (three), pressures (27), hurries (23), and pressure rate (13.8%).
The Rams had a sense early on that they had something special in Verse.
“I just think about Verse’s first couple of practices here in OTAs with no pads on,” quarterback Matt Stafford said earlier this season. “He’s running over people. We’re trying to teach him how to practice with our own team and do all that kind of stuff. The growth that he’s had has been amazing to watch and see.”
Verse and Fiske are really the only reason the Rams defense has been as competitive as it has been in 2024. They’re propping an otherwise talent-bereft unit and still have the team in the playoff hunt.
But Verse is by far the best defensive rookie not just on his own team, but the entire league. He has at least one tackle for loss in seven of his first nine games and 3.5 sacks in his last three.
And there’s reason to believe that what Verse is doing is sustainable.
His 11 tackles for loss are tied for second most by any player through their first 11 games since TFLs became an official stat in 1999. The defenders he’s tied with? Von Miller and Micah Parsons.
Honorable mention: Latu, Kamari Lassiter, Quinyon Mitchell
Assistant Coach of the Year
Jesse Minter, Defensive Coordinator, Los Angeles Chargers
Los Angeles Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter has the look of a future NFL head coach. For now, he’ll have to settle for PFN’s Midseason Assistant Coach of the Year.
Minter’s star has risen dramatically in recent months, first with the work he did at Michigan and now with a Chargers defense that has gone from 24th to first in points allowed in just one year.
The Chargers’ defense through 10 weeks ranks first in scoring (13.4 points per game), second in first downs (16.8) and red-zone success rate (38.9%), fifth in yards per pass (5.9), and ninth in yards per play (5.1).
How has Minter done it? With an attacking, physical, and multiple approach that has been quite effective.
They’re a bottom-10 blitz team, doing so on just 22% of opponents’ dropbacks. They’re able to get pressure just 17.1% of the time. Yet when they do bring heat, it’s effective. Their sack rate (10.7%) is third in the NFL.
But what they do — play solid, smart zone defense — they do incredibly well.
"We've gotta enjoy Jesse Minter while we have him because I think he's gonna be a Head Coach next year..
He's always trying to get better and he has IT"@CoachJim4UM #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/0Ky6SKVsoQ
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) November 11, 2024
Minter was just 40 when Jim Harbaugh brought him along from Michigan after a successful two-year run together in Ann Arbor, capped by a national championship in 2023.
But more than a Michigan man, Minter is a Harbaugh man. He got his first break in the NFL on John Harbaugh’s staff. Minter worked his way up from an entry-level assistant to position coach before leaving to run Vanderbilt’s defense for one season.
By that point, Jim Harbaugh had seen enough of him to not just make him the Wolverines’ DC, but to serve as Michigan’s interim head coach as Harbaugh served his NCAA-sanctioned suspension.
The two men left the drama of college athletics behind this spring, and neither should regret the decision one bit.
Scheme alone wasn’t enough to fix a Chargers defense that was pretty underwhelming during much of Brandon Staley’s run. They needed a talent infusion, too.
So this offseason they added several solid, established veterans, including safety Elijah Molden, defensive tackle Poona Ford, EDGE Bud Dupree, linebacker Denzel Perryman, and cornerback Kristian Fulton.
That personnel upgrade combined with Minter’s scheme has worked wonders. The Chargers on the year rank first in EPA per play (-.150) and third in DEF+ (90.3).
They are off to a 6-3 start because they’ve held all nine opponents to 20 points or fewer. Granted, Minter’s resume has been built against some truly dreadful offenses (including the Raiders, Panthers, Broncos, Saints, Browns, and Titans).
His challenge is about to grow. But if Minter can tame L.A.’s next five opponents — Bengals, Ravens, Falcons, Chiefs, and Buccaneers — expect the head coach chatter around him to get deafening.
Honorable mention: Brian Flores, Ben Johnson, Steve Spagnuolo