Five early contenders for Comeback Player of the Year in 2025
By Andy Davies
The NFL season is still three months away, but NFL fans are already looking ahead and picking their award winners.
Whilst the Most Valuable Player, Walter Payton Man of the Year and Rookie of the Year are some of the most desired awards, the Comeback Player of the Year award is one with plenty of esteem.
Placekicker Jim Martin of the Baltimore Colts was the first winner of the award in 1963 and only two players have won it on multiple occasions. One is Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, who is the most recent recipient. The other is Chad Pennington, who won it twice in three years with two franchises in the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins.
As players look to return from injury or back to form, here are five early contenders for the Comeback Player of the Year award in the 2025 season.
Contender #1: Aaron Rodgers (Quarterback- Pittsburgh Steelers)
After a tumultuous two-year spell with the New York Jets, Aaron Rodgers is looking for one last ride with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
He signed a one-year $13.6 million deal with the Steelers last week. He joins up with an organisation that defines the phrase “stable franchise”.
Noone defies this more than head coach Mike Tomlin, who has yet to have a losing season since being hired in 2007.
He feels like the perfect coach for Rodgers.
However, last season, Pittsburgh quarterbacks Russell Wilson (33) and Justin Fields (16) were sacked a combined 49 times. Only Caleb Williams (68), C.J. Stroud (52) and Geno Smith (50) were sacked more times in 2024.
This could cause some problems for Rodgers, who suffered from a bad offensive line with the Jets. He was sacked 40 times, tied for ninth in the league in this statistic.
Without many major incomings in this unit during the offseason, this has to be a worry for fans of the Steelers as to how they protect Rodgers.
Lineman Troy Fautanu, Zach Frazier and Mason McCormick were all taken in three of Pittsburgh’s first four selections in the 2024 NFL Draft. With a full season now under their belt, expect them to improve.
Despite the lack of protection Rodgers received in 2024, he was still eighth in the league for passing yards (3,897) and only six quarterbacks threw for more passing touchdowns (28).
With someone as talented as DK Metcalf to throw to, this will help him overcome the offensive line issues he may have in 2025, thus putting him in contention for the Comeback Player of the Year award.
Contender #2: Aidan Hutchinson (Defensive End- Detroit Lions)
Detroit Lions defensive end Aidan Hutchinson was set for the Defensive Player of the year award in 2024 before a season ending injury in Week Six.
At a young age, he has the potential to come back from this injury with great effect.
In a tough division, he will have his work cut out. If he plays anything like the first three season of his career, then he will be in contention for a DPOY award once again.
With the Lions the number one seed in the NFL during the 2024 season, there will be a lot of media spotlight on the team in their 2025 campaign. Only the Kansas City Chiefs (7) and Dallas Cowboys (6) have more primetime games than Detroit.
Should Hutchinson and the Lions have another 14,15-win season that is not interrupted by injury, then he will be firmly in the minds of players when it comes to the voting process, as well as NFL fans.
Contender #3: Christian McCaffrey (Running back- San Francisco 49ers)
What a difference a year makes.
Twelve months ago, San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey was viewed as one of the best, if not the best running back in the NFL.
He had just come off the back of arguably the best season of his career. The 49ers reached the Super Bowl and McCaffrey was named Offensive Player of the Year.
EA Sports decided to use him for their cover for last season’s edition of the game, a testament to the sort of the season he had.
What transpired for McCaffrey and the Niners was a season hit by injury, just as it was after their other recent Super Bowl loss.
People are now back to questioning McCaffrey’s health, in similar fashion to how fans often did during his time with the Carolina Panthers.
His injury issues seemed to have gone when he moved to the Niners and no longer became the bell cow. These concerns are now back.
Despite this, he has now handed over the baton of Madden curse mystique to Saquon Barkley.
In 2025, the Niners only play three teams who made the playoffs in 2024. Should McCaffrey stay healthy and the Niners have a winning season, he is like to be a key protagonist.
Given he was the Offensive Player of the Year in 2023, a return to form would likely give him an advantage in winning Comeback Player of the year
Contender #4: Dak Prescott (Quarterback- Dallas Cowboys)
No position wins the award more than the quarterback.
Give a Dallas Cowboys quarterback a good season and this would be amplified.
The last non-quarterback to win the award was Keenan Allen in 2017.
Under a new head coach in Brian Schottenheimer, there is not too much excitement around this Dallas Cowboys team. However, sometimes great appointments can happen when least expected.
No team has more media attention than the Cowboys. This is shown by the fact only the Kansas City Chiefs have more primetime games than Dallas, despite their struggles in 2024.
A return to the field and a trip to the playoffs would see Prescott likely to be one of the contenders for the award.
Contender #5: J.J. McCarthy (Quarterback- Minnesota Vikings)
Everything is in place for J.J. McCarthy to succeed in his first year of starting.
He was meant to be on the field in 2024. A torn meniscus stopped this from happening, being ruled out for the entire of his rookie campaign.
The Minnesota Vikings went on to win 14 games, with quarterback Sam Darnold having a career resurgence.
He is no longer there, moving to the Seattle Seahawks in the offseason. The team is now McCarthy’s, with Sam Howell currently the backup.
During his time in Michigan, it was a double-edged sword.
One the one hand, people would praise him for being a “winner”. On the other hand, this was downplayed as he was seen as being on the best team.
With the Vikings, McCarthy has the best wide receiver in the NFL to throw to in Justin Jefferson. In Jordan Addison, they have one of the best WR2’s in the league. Add in running back Aaron Jones, and there is a safety blanket for him to hand off to.
With a Brian Flores led defense and one of the brightest head coaches in the league, he is in a great position to succeed.
With the unfortunate injury to start his career, a successful first year under centre would be quite the comeback for McCarthy.
ANDY DAVIES
NFL ANALYST
ANDY IS A SPORTS JOURNALISM GRADUATE WITH OVER FOUR YEARS EXPERIENCE OF NFL WRITING AND PODCASTING. ANDY HAS BEEN TO EVERY NFL STADIUM AND IS THE HOST OF THE ACROSS THE POD PODCAST. HE HAS PRESS PASS EXPERIENCE AT THE LONDON GAMES AND MANY OTHER NFL BASED EVENTS SUCH AS THE SUPER BOWL, HAVING INTERVIEWED THE LIKES OF AARON RODGERS, JASON BELL, OSI UMENYIORA, PATRICK MAHOMES, TRAVIS KELCE, DERRICK HENRY, SAQUON BARKLEY AND JALEN HURTS.