Friday night the NFL Honors led out with the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year Award. To the surprise of no one, Washington Commanders QB Jayden Daniels took home the award. But he wasn’t a unanimous selection. One other received a vote — Raiders TE Brock Bowers.
Of the 50 votes for AP Offensive Rookie of the Year, Daniels received 49 of them. The other first place vote went to Brock Bowers.
Here’s the full voting results:
The voting for the 2024 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year selected by The Associated Press in balloting by a nationwide panel of media:
(Voting is on a 10-5-3-2-1 basis)
Jayden Daniels, Washington:49-1-0-0-0: 495
Brock Bowers, Las Vegas: 1-32-11-5-1: 214
Bo Nix, Denver:…— Josh Dubow (@JoshDubowAP) February 7, 2025
Daniels had a tremendous season and was deserving of this award. He led the Commanders to the playoffs and even won a playoff game. But Bowers deserved recognition for his historic season.
The main reason Bowers didn’t stand a chance against Daniels was his position. Despite Bowers breaking a rookie tight end record that stood for six decades, despite setting the rookie receptions record…twice, and despite setting a new Raiders franchise receptions record (112), a tight end will always take a backseat to an elite quarterback.
Bowers did, lead the way in second place votes, getting 32 — 17 more than Broncos QB Bo Nix who also led his team to the playoffs. No one else was even in the conversation.