NFL Honors Awards 2015: Biggest Snubs and Surprises

The festivities in the desert have nearly come to a crescendo. Super Bowl XLIX is now just hours away, and the NFL’s best and brightest shared the national spotlight as the fourth annual NFL Honors ceremony revealed the results of the sport’s most coveted awards.

The 2014 NFL season saw some historic performances from around the league, making the decisions for The Associated Press and others who had a vote nearly impossible to get it right without some controversy or debate.

This piece focuses on the night’s biggest surprises and snubs. But in this particular case, a snub or a surprise doesn’t have to mean the voters got it wrong; it can simply mean other guys were equally worthy of the honor, or the decision was unexpected.

So let’s get to it.

Snubbed: J.J. Watt for MVP

Frank Micelotta/Associated Press

Winner: Aaron Rodgers, QB, Green Bay Packers

It’s unfair to claim Aaron Rodgers is undeserving of the MVP award after the outstanding season he had at the most important position in football; however, we can argue that J.J. Watt was snubbed.

Watt might not be as “valuable” as the best quarterback in football, but when you consider the degree of dominance he displayed on the defensive side of the ball in 2014, it makes you wonder if defensive players will ever again get MVP recognition as the rules slant more and more in favor of the offense.

Even with the big plays Watt made on offense, he still didn’t do enough to overcome an outstanding quarterback.

Defensively, Watt finished the year with 20.5 sacks, 10 pass deflections, one interception, four forced fumbles, five fumble recoveries and two defensive TDs. In addition to all of that, he had more tackles (78) than any other player with at least 6.5 sacks.

On offense, Watt added three receiving TDs to his impressive list of production.

He is by far the most disruptive defender in the sport today.

Surprise: Aaron Donald Winning Defensive Rookie of the Year Award

USA TODAY Sports

St. Louis Rams’ DT Aaron Donald winning Defensive Player of the Year goes down as a pleasant surprise. No defensive rookie was more deserving of the honor than Donald. He had a fruitful first season, leading all NFL rookies with 9.0 sacks—a new franchise record for rookies. He also had 32 quarterback pressures, 12 quarterback hits and 17 tackles for loss—which earned him Pro Bowl honors. 

But despite the impressive numbers, this selection remains a bit of a surprise given how close the competition was and the position this award tends to favor (linebackers have won the award 11 out of the last 15 years). Considering all of that, it seemed a bit unlikely that an interior lineman would win Saturday night.

In terms of the competition for the award, C.J. Mosley stepped into some huge shoes for the Ravens this year and became one of the best players on a notorious defense. Usually a top-tier rookie linebacker on a playoff team is going to get the edge over a defense tackle who didn’t even earn a starting role in the defense until Week 6.

Another worthy candidate that made the Donald pick a surprise was the fantastic season orchestrated by Raiders LB Khalil Mack. Perhaps it was the lack of sacks that kept Mack from winning the award, but he still managed to be the highest-graded 4-3 outside linebacker in the NFL, according to Pro Football Focus.  

As impressive as this was, Donald can claim a similar feat among, as he ranked the highest among all NFL defensive tackles, via PFF.

Snubbed: Rob Gronkowski for Fantasy Player of the Year

Jim Rogash/Getty Images

Winner: Le'Veon Bell

Le’Veon Bell was a wonderful running back this year and was certainly a great asset to have on any fantasy team, but when you look at fantasy value, the best way to think about it is through relative value for each position. Through that lens, Gronkowski gave fantasy owners the biggest advantage in 2014.

Gronk led all tight ends in receptions (82), receiving yards (1,124) and touchdowns (12). He had more fantasy points in standard-scoring leagues than Randall Cobb, T.Y. Hilton and Alshon Jeffery, who all had excellent years at the wide receiver position. Any time a tight end can put up WR1 numbers, he should be an MVP candidate. 

Tight end points are so much more important in fantasy football because the drop-off in expected points at that position happens faster than any other skilled position.

Gronkowski outscored fantasy’s No. 2 TE, Antonio Gates, by nearly 40 points. To put this into perspective, the gap between Gronkowski and Gates was just as wide as the gap between Gates and the No. 8 tight end, Coby Fleener. That should give you an idea just how much value Gronkowski brought to his fantasy owners.

Surprise: DeMarco Murray for Offensive Player of the Year

Frank Micelotta/Associated Press

This comes as a surprise when you consider the supporting cast Murray had up front to generate huge holes. Perhaps the most impressive thing Murray did this year was stay healthy for 16 games for the first time in his four-year career.

The Cowboys' featured runner put up amazing statistics and was pivotal in the team’s success this year. Murray winning this award is not a crime or major oversight. But he had to beat out a lot of other players (including Aaron Rodgers) to win this.

I can understand wanting to avoid quarterbacks for this category considering they usually win MVP, but there were a ton of worthy candidates for this award, including WR Antonio Brown, RB Le’Veon Bell and QB Andrew Luck.

In the end, Murray won predominately because he ran away with the rushing title, gaining 1,845 yards—nearly 500 more than any other player. He also topped the NFL with 2,261 yards from scrimmage and scored 13 touchdowns.  

Even with such impressive stats, the guy who I’d say could have made the better case for Offensive Player of the Year is…

Snubbed: Le’Veon Bell for Offensive Player of the Year

Don Wright/Associated Press

Winner: DeMarco Murray

The way I look at this award is by looking at the player who showed off the most impressive skills to help his team offensively. The second thing worth considering is to avoid making this honor synonymous with MVP. For this reason, the winner of the MVP award should be left out of this race—as is normally the case.

Le’Veon Bell displayed a degree of versatility that I haven’t seen at the running back position for a long time. He has the size (6'1", 244 lbs) and strength to break arm tackles and move a pile—he has the quick feet of a cornerback, the patience of a rare veteran and the hands of a wide receiver. To top it all off, Bell was an excellent blocking in pass protection and was impressive as a route-runner.

Basically, the man is the best example of a complete back in the NFL.

For the season Bell came up about 500 yards short of Murray's 1,845 yards rushing, but Bell led all running backs with 854 yards receiving.

Both Murray and Bell averaged 4.7 yards per carry, but if I had to pick a running back to feature based on what I saw in 2014, I’m going with the skill set of Bell.  

Surprise: Thomas Davis Wins Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year

Frank Micelotta/Associated Press

When I read about the things Thomas Davis has done off the field around the community, I can understand how he ended up winning the award. But the other two candidates had similar resumes on paper, which made the decision tough.

Considering how hard it was for me to distinguish who was most deserving, it seemed only natural that the most well-known and clean-cut name of the three finalists would end up going home with the award.

Aaron Rodgers is the quarterback we see all the time on TV and in commercials. He has been featured on ESPN and other networks numerous times for his generosity off the field and has created a public persona that I imagined would have influenced the voters enough to give him the edge in what appeared to be a close race.

Having said all of that, I’m glad the award went to the underdog in this category. It’s good to see there is more to this thing than popularity and a golden-boy persona.

Snubbed: Teryl Austin for Coordinator of the Year

Uncredited/Associated Press

Winner: Todd Bowles

There’s no denying Arizona Cardinals defensive coordinator (now Jets head coach) Todd Bowles was deserving of the award, but one coach had a more impressive season: first-year defensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions, Teryl Austin.

Austin dramatically improved what had been a mediocre, inconsistent Lions defense for several years.

Before the season began, nobody expected Detroit’s defense would become the strength of the team, which is exactly what it became. There’s no doubt the defensive line was a known commodity, but the linebackers and secondary had struggled for years under former head coach Jim Schwartz. So when the 2014 season began, most analysts had serious concerns about a group that had failed to make many personnel changes in the offseason.

In an MLive.com article written by Justin Rogers back in February, Austin had this response when asked about his desire to model Detroit's defense after the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks:

"

If you're going to model after them, the thing that you like that they do is the way they play together, the way they play for each other. In my opinion, if you have good players and you can get them all to play and buy into the team part of it, I think you have a chance to have an outstanding defense. 

You don't have to do the scheme the way they do. You don't have to do coverages or whatever they do, but you have to have a group of guys that believe in each other and believe in what we're doing. Then you can reach great heights.

"

Apparently, he had a pretty good idea about the Seahawks' successful formula. 

Who would have every imagined that a secondary featuring Rashean Mathis—a cornerback older than Methuselah—Glover Quin, Darius Slay, Isa Abdul-Quddus and James Ihedigbo would become one of the stingiest units in the league and a big reason the team finished 11-5 and made it to the playoffs.

 According to Football Outsiders, Detroit’s defense finished the season ranked third overall.

Snubbed: Jason Garrett for Coach of the Year

Brandon Wade/Associated Press

Winner: Bruce Arians

We can all agree that Bruce Arians has done a masterful job this year with the Arizona Cardinals, powering through an injury-ravaged roster with unflinching confidence and nearly finishing atop the most feared division in the NFL. He took his second Coach of the Year award in three seasons after leading his Cardinals to an 11-5 record and a wild-card playoff berth.

But it’s hard not to feel like Jason Garrett was able to generate more surprising success from a Cowboys team that few expected to be as good as it was. Considering the lack of talent on defense, an aging quarterback returning from back surgery and a developing perception that owner Jerry Jones was ill-equipped to handle decisions on the football side of things, another 8-8 season was about all people were expecting in Dallas.

Garrett finally showed off his leadership abilities this season and managed to keep a guy like Dez Bryant engaged in the game while running more than 500 times this season, third-most in the league.

Perhaps the most impressive feat Garrett accomplished this year was the way he kept the Cowboys focused on the road. Dallas finished the year undefeated (8-0) on the road, an accomplishment no other team can claim in 2014. In fact, since the inception of the 16-game schedule, only six teams have won every road game.

Ryan Riddle is a former NFL player who currently writes for Bleacher Report.