Buffalo Rumblings
The voting for the Comeback Player of the Year award is going to be insane.
What are the rules for NFL Comeback Player of the Year voting? No one seems to know, and that’s one reason Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin did not win the award following the 2023 season and is once again a finalist in the 2024 season.
Hamlin was a finalist a year ago but lost to Cleveland Browns quarterback Joe Flacco. Flacco came off his couch in midseason to lead the Browns to a 4-1 record down the stretch and into the playoffs. Damar Hamlin died on the field in January 2023 and returned to play during the 2023 regular season.
But because Hamlin was only a backup and didn’t make a huge impact on the field, voters at the Associated Press gave Flacco the nod over a dude who literally came back from death.
In June 2024, the AP attempted to clarify the voting for the award after the uproar following Flacco’s win.
“The spirit of the AP Comeback Player of the Year Award is to honor a player who has demonstrated resilience in the face of adversity by overcoming illness, physical injury or other circumstances that led him to miss playing time the previous season.”
So Flacco overcoming the couch was not really the spirit of the award, but he won it anyway.
If that’s the criteria, this year’s field is certainly setting up to be incredibly weird.
Hamlin, of course, played in 2023 but he wasn’t one of the Bills’ top safeties so he’s overcoming being a backup for the award now that he’s a starter? Sam Darnold was the backup in San Francisco for the 49ers and Brock Purdy, so he’s overcoming his previous poor play that result in him being a backup?
Make it make sense.
J.K. Dobbins, Christian Gonzalez, and Joe Burrow are all overcoming injuries sustained during the 2023 season, so they all more closely reflect the purpose of the award.
The voters that went with Hamlin may be trying to right previous wrongs. We’ll see if enough of them decided the same thing independently.
Here are the finalists:
