The 2025 NFL season is coming to a close in the next few weeks. On Thursday, we got the NFL’s list of finalists for each award, so it’s time for us to do our official 2025 award show.

We’ll hit on some of the key awards, such as Most Valuable Player, Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year, Coach of the Year, etc.,  but to spice things up a little bit, we’ve come up with a handful of our own awards to dish out.

Here is the official 2025 EssentiallySports NFL award show.

Most Valuable Player: Drake Maye

Finalist: Josh Allen, Trevor Lawrence, Matthew Stafford, Christian McCaffrey

I’m going against the grain here. Matthew Stafford had better stats than Drake Maye, there is no doubt about it, but the Most Valuable Player award has gotten away from what it’s supposed to be. It’s not the best player, it’s the most valuable. And I don’t think there’s much of an argument for who is more valuable to their team.

Stick an average quarterback on the Rams, and they’re probably a nine or 10-win team. Stick an average quarterback on the Patriots, and they’re probably a seven or eight-win team. The award is likely going to go to Stafford, which is pretty evident by the fact that Stafford wasn’t named a finalist for Offensive Player of the Year, while Maye was, but I think it should go to Maye, because without him, the Patriots are not the favorites in the AFC Championship game right now.

Offensive Player of the Year: Puka Nacua

Finalists: Drake Maye, Bijan Robinson, Christian McCaffrey, Jaxon Smith-Njigba

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I would hate to see Puka Nacua robbed of the Offensive Player of the Year award because they want to make Patriots fans happy and give it to Drake Maye if he doesn’t win MVP. Nacua is having statistically one of the greatest wide receiver seasons we’ve ever seen. He’s caught 129 passes for 1,715 yards and 10 touchdowns, but his yards per route run (3.73) is one of the highest ever.

Nacua, Jaxon Smith-Njigba or Christian McCaffrey deserve to win this award. I’d personally give it to Nacua, but I just hope they don’t rob one of these three and give it to a quarterback.

Defensive Player of the Year: Myles Garrett

Finalists: Will Anderson, Nik Bonitto, Micah Parsons, Aidan Hutchinson

This year’s Defensive Player of the Year award might have the most obvious winner ever. Myles Garrett broke the NFL sack record with 23 this year, so while all the finalists have been great, there’s really no competition. No one has ever done what Garrett did this season, so he’s my DPOTY.

Coach of the Year: Mike Macdonald

Finalists: Liam Coen, Ben Johnson, Mike Vrabel, Kyle Shanahan

For our final real award, I’m once again going against the grain and picking Mike Macdonald to win the Coach of the Year award. It’s going to end up going to Mike Vrabel, Liam Coen, or Ben Johnson, because they’re all in their first year with their new teams, but Macdonald has been the best coach in the NFL this season.

I’m not just looking at Seattle’s success as a whole. I’m looking at his defense. Everyone has hyped up Houston as the best defense in the NFL, but you know who finished No. 1 in scoring, passing yards per attempt and rushing yards per attempt while having a top-1o pass rush? Seattle.

This guy has worked some magic with the Seahawks this season, so he deserves Coach of the Year.

Game of the Year: Rams vs Seahawks, Week 16

Finalists: Bills vs Ravens, Week 1; Packers vs Bears, Week 16; Bears vs 49ers, Week 17

There were so many thrilling games this season, but I think the Game of the Year award has to go to the Seattle Seahawks and Los Angeles Rams’ second matchup in Week 16.

I will admit, this game was a bit of a snoozer for the first three quarters. The Rams were up 16 early in the fourth quarter, but the Seahawks rallied from behind, scoring a punt return touchdown and a 26-yard pass to bring themselves within two points of the Rams. On the two-point conversion to tie the game, it looked like the Seahawks failed, but under further review, they ruled that it was a backwards pass, and Zach Charbonnett had a clear recovery in the end zone after everyone thought the play was dead. The try was good, and Seattle evened the score at 30.

The game went to overtime, and the Rams had the ball first. After punting on four of their last five drives, Matthew Stafford led the Rams on an 8-play, 80-yard touchdown drive to take the lead, but the Seahawks quickly responded. They went 65 yards in nine plays to score, and decided to go for two to win it. Darnold connected with Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and the Seahawks took a massive 38-37 victory, which helped them secure the 1-seed in the NFC.

This game had it all. The Seahawks overcame a huge deficit, it went to overtime where both teams scored, and it had massive playoff implications. There were a lot of other great games, but this one was the best of them all.

Catch of the Year: Treylon Burks

Finalists: Kenneth Gainwell, Michael Pittman, Emeka Egbuka, Sam LaPorta

If I could include postseason catches, Kayshon Boutte’s from last week might’ve won, but I think I have to give it to Treylon Bruks for this catch he had against the Denver Broncos. And when you consider this play directly correlated to the Commanders taking Denver to overtime and nearly winning, it makes it that much better.

Throw of the Year: Caleb Williams

Finalist: Caleb Williams again, Matthew Stafford, Josh Allen, Bo Nix

Caleb Williams had two throws in the postseason that would’ve won this award, but I’m going with his game-winner in overtime to DJ Moore to knock off the Green Bay Packers. It was overtime, and the next score would win. Williams dropped back, launched it 55 yard downfield and put it right in Moore’s breadbasket with a defender draped all over him. You could not have made a better throw there, and with the game on the line, I had to put it as No. 1.

Here are four throws that could’ve won this award, but I went with the first one in this video. To be fair, I do think the two he made in the postseason were better given the stakes, but this is a regular season award show.

Surprise Team of the Year: Jacksonville Jaguars

Finalists: Jacksonville Jaguars, Chicago Bears, Carolina Panthers, Kansas City Chiefs

I almost gave this award to the Kansas City Chiefs for being so shockingly bad, but I decided to be a lover and not a hater, so I’m giving it to the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Patriots and Bears certainly could’ve won this award too, but I think the Jags had Trevor Lawrence, who looked like he’d never get over the hump, a first-year head coach literally no other team even wanted to interview, and a defensive roster that I didn’t think was as good as New England’s. And they won one less game than the Patriots while having a much tougher schedule.

You could give this to New England, Chicago or Carolina, and I wouldn’t be mad at you. I just decided to give this one to the Jags, because I was shocked at how well they played this year.

Come Back Kids Award: Chicago Bears

Finalists: Denver Broncos, Carolina Panthers, New Orleans Saints, Buffalo Bills

Was there really any competition here? The Bears have been pulling games out of their butts all season long. Caleb Williams leads all quarterbacks with six comeback wins in the fourth quarter, which is tied for the second-most in a single season since 2016. Even once the regular season was over, they pulled off another comeback against Green Bay in the Wild Card before almost doing it to the Rams in the Divisional. They just kept finding ways to win when they were trailing no matter the circumstance.

Best Fantasy Sleeper: Chris Olave

Finalists: George Pickens, Javonte Williams

Now it’s time to get into a couple of fantasy football awards. Starting with the Best Fantasy Sleeper of the Year, I think it has to go to Chris Olave. George Pickens and Javonte Williams both had good cases, but Olave was drafted as the WR35 with an average draft position of 82.3, and ended the season as the WR6. He also had an incredible playoff run, scoring 20+ in all three fantasy playoff games. If you drafted him, you probably did pretty well this season.

Worst Fantasy Pick: Brian Thomas Jr.

Finalists: Ashton Jeanty, Malik Nabers, Saquon Barkley, Justin Jefferson

Finally, to round out the 2025 EssentiallySports award show, Brian Thomas Jr. is my pick for the worst fantasy pick of the season. There were other candidates, especially Malik Nabers and Justin Jefferson, but I had to go with Thomas. He cost you an early second-round pick, and he ended the season as the WR42 with just 138 fantasy points. That’s absolutely brutal. Nabers was worse, but he was injured all season. Thomas was just bad.