NFL Award Predictions 2025: Picks for NFL MVP, Rookie of the Year, More after Week 14

Story by

Story by
NFL Award Predictions 2025: Picks for NFL MVP, Rookie of the Year, More after Week 14

Matt Johnson · Sportsnaut

Mon, Dec 8, 2025 ·

6 min read

About Our Ads

We're in the final full month of the 2025 NFL season, with the conclusion of Week 14 meaning each team has just four games left on its schedule. While plenty can change in a four-game span, we're starting to get a clearer picture of who may take home MVP, Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year and other wards.

Let's dive into our NFL Award Predictions following Week 14. We've included Comeback Player of the Year, Coach of the Year and Executive of the year in this exercise, too.

Offensive Player of the Year: Jaxon Smith-Njigba , Seattle Seahawks

NFL Award Predictions 2025 — Brett Davis-Imagn Images

The bad news for Jaxon Smith-Njigba is that he's no longer on pace to break the single-season receiving yardage record. From Weeks 1-12, the Seattle Seahawks wideout had 80 receptions for 1,313 receiving yards. That total alone would still have him leading the NFL in receiving yardage entering Week 15 by over 100 yards. Unfortunately, the historic pace has come to an end. After averaging 119.4 receiving yards per game in his first 11 contests, Smith-Njigba has 115 receiving yards total in the last two games. All of this is to say, even with JSN off the historic pace, his importance to the Seahawks offense this season exceeds that of Jahmyr Gibbs and Puka Nacua . JSN is the Seahawks' offense, and he deserves Offensive Player of the Year.

Related: Week 15 Fantasy Rankings

Defensive Player of the Year: Myles Garrett , Cleveland Browns

This isn't even a discussion. Myles Garrett is going to shatter the single-season sack record in 2025, as he's currently on pace for 26 this season. Making NFL history in itself will certainly be enough to win Defensive Player of the Year. In case it's not, Garrett is leading one of the league's best defenses, and he's already become just the second player in NFL history to record 30-plus tackles for loss in a season. Realistically, Garrett will hold the single-season record for sacks and TFLs by Week 18.

Related: NFL Defense Rankings 2025

Offensive Rookie of the Year: Tetairoa McMillan , Carolina Panthers

NFL Award Predictions — Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

It's an interesting year for rookies on the offensive side of the ball. Coming into the season, running back Ashton Jeanty was the heavy favorite followed by quarterback Cam Ward . Neither are having rookie seasons that even warrant a top-five vote. Emeka Egbuka was the leading option early in the season, putting up 445 receiving yards (89 per game) and 5 touchdowns in his first five games. Since returning from injury, Egbuka has totaled just 361 receiving yards (45.1 per game) with 1 touchdown in his last eight contests.

So, the pick for Offensive Rookie of the Year is Tetairoa McMillan. The Carolina Panthers rookie wideout ranks 11th in the league in receiving yards (826), and he's cleared 60 receiving yards in seven of 13 games this season. While his production hasn't always been consistent, due to quarterback play and some of his drops, McMillan will likely finish his rookie season with over 1,000 receiving yards and 8 touchdowns.

Defensive Rookie of the Year: Carson Schwesinger , Browns

Myles Garrett rightfully gets the attention when talking about Cleveland's defense, but it certainly appears like the Browns front office has struck gold with another standout defensively. First-round pick Mason Graham has been very good, but the emerging star from Cleveland's rookie class is linebacker Carson Schwesinger. Among all off-ball linebackers, he ranks fifth in tackles for loss (10). Just a few months removed from being the 33rd overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, he already looks like a Pro Bowl-caliber linebacker.

Coach of the Year: Mike Vrabel, New England Patriots

The New England Patriots have delivered the biggest one-season turnaround in the NFL this year, so Coach of the Year already has Mike Vrabel's name on it. It certainly helped that the Patriots' schedule might have been the weakest in football this season, but New England's defense has also made significant strides under Vrabel, and Drake Maye is playing at an NFL MVP-caliber level thanks to Vrabel's hiring of offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels. Just to cement the pick, if New England wins three of its last four games, Vrabel will have delivered 10 more wins than the team had last season.

Executive of the Year: John Schneider, Seattle Seahawks

Executive of the Year isn't often highlighted with NFL award predictions, but it's an honor worth recognizing. There are several compelling candidates to choose from in 2025, including Les Snead, Brian Gutekunst, George Paton, and Ryan Poles. In each of those instances, though, it feels like the head coach will get a majority of the credit. Circumstances are a bit different in Seattle. Seahawks general manager John Schneider made the gamble of trading Geno Smith and signing Sam Darnold ; it paid off in a big way. He also hired Mike Macdonald, who looks like one of the best head coaches in the NFL right now, and he finally seemed to fix the Seahawks offensive line. All of that warrants him earning Executive of the Year.

Comeback Player of the Year: Christian McCaffrey , 49ers

Christian McCaffrey is demonstrating once again this season why he's one of the best NFL players of his era and a surefire Hall of Famer. After playing in just 4 games last season, McCaffrey has been the one stabilizing force in the San Francisco 49ers offense this season. George Kittle and Brock Purdy have missed significant time, the receiving corps has been decimated by injuries, and the offensive line has been abysmal in run blocking. CMC is a constant. He's third in the NFL in scrimmage yards (1,655) and is on pace to become the first player in NFL history to have multiple seasons with both 1,000 rushing yards and 1,000 receiving yards.

NFL MVP: Drake Maye, New England Patrots

Matthew Stafford has been outstanding this season, putting up numbers worthy of NFL MVP. Entering Week 15, though, this pick wasn't even a contest for us. Stafford is operating in a passing attack with Offensive Player of the Year candidate Puka Nacua and Pro Bowl wide receiver Davante Adams , the best receiver duo in the NFL this season. Drake Maye has a 32-year-old Stefon Diggs off an ACL tear, Hunter Henry , and Kayshon Boutte . As for the advance stats, Maye is ahead of Stafford in both EPA per Play (0.285 – 0.237) and ESPN QBR (72.3 – 68.9). Maye is almost single-handedly carrying the Patriots offense, and that better meets the definition of Most Valuable Player than Stafford's accomplishments.

Related Headlines

Mobilize your Website

View Site in Mobile | Classic

Share by: