Geno Smith wins NFL Comeback Player of Year Award; Walker 2nd, Woolen 3rd for rookie honors
SEATTLE – Consider Geno Smith’s comeback officially complete.
Putting a fitting capper on a season in which he won a starting job for the first time in eight years and then led the NFL in completion percentage, Smith on Thursday night won the league’s official award as Comeback Player of the Year as announced during the NFL Honors show in Phoenix.
Smith had earlier won several other Comeback Player of the Year awards, but Thursday’s honor came from the Associated Press, which the league considers its official awards.
Smith had earlier been revealed one of three finalists in the vote of 50 AP votes, the others being San Francisco’s Christian McCaffrey and New York’s Saquon Barkley.Smith ultimately got 28 of the 50 first-place votes and finished with 171 points in the new voting system in which voters picked a top three on a 5-3-1 points system (in the past, voters simply selected a winner) while McCaffrey received 12 first-place votes and 110 points and Barkley four first-place votes and 86 overall.Smith was the only Seahawk to win one of the individual awards .
Cornerback Tariq Woolen and running back Kenneth Walker III were each finalists for the league’s Rookie of the Year awards but did not win.
Walker finished second for the Offensive Rookie of the Year award behind Jets receiver Garrett Wilson and Woolen third behind Jets cornerback Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner and Detroit’s Aidan Hutchinson.
Pete Carroll was ninth in the voting for Coach of the Year, which was won by Brian Daboll of the New York Giants.
Walker, who was just the second rookie in team history to top the 1,000-yard rushing mark, finishing with 1,050, and tied Thomas Rawls for the most 100-yard games in a season for a rookie with five, ultimately fell victim to the new voting system as he had 19 first-place votes to Wilson’s 18 and the six of San Francisco QB Brock Purdy.
But Wilson got more second-place votes – 19 – as did Purdy, who had 12, to the eight of Walker, meaning Wilson finished with 156 points to Walker’s 129 and Purdy’s 78.
Smith not only led the NFL with a completion percentage of 69.8% but also led the league with nine games with a completion percentage of 70% or better while also setting Seahawks franchise records in attempt (572), yards (4,282) and completions (399).
Smith is the first Seahawk to win the Comeback Player of the Year award.
Woolen made the list of finalists after a surprisingly strong season in which he went from a fifth-round pick, taken 153rd overall, to finishing tied for the league lead in interceptions with six but finished a distant third, getting one of the 50 first-place votes – Gardner got 46 and Hutchinson three.
Carroll, meanwhile, received one second-place vote and three third-place votes for six points overall. Carroll has never won the award and some thought he might have finished higher this year given Seattle making the playoffs and going 9-8 after the trade of Russell Wilson and lots of pre-season predictions of a last-place finish.
Carroll has received first-place votes before, finishing third overall in voting in 2012 when he got five votes, sixth in 2013 when he got two votes and fourth in 2014 when he got 2.5 votes. He was also fifth 2018 with two votes.
Seattle also got another honor as the team’s 2022 Fan of the Year – Larry Bevans – was named as the NFL Fan of the Year.
According to the team’s website, Bevans, who lives in Vancouver, Wash., has been a season-ticket holder since 2009 and is the head of the Southwest Washington Seattle SeaHawkers Booter Club.
Along with being a rabid fan, the team said Bevans also earned the honor for charitable activities that include working with Bridge the Gap, an organization that helps foster children by “providing resources to enhance the stability, growth and success of children in foster and adoptive care,” and Open House Ministries, an organization that helps homeless families “by equipping them with tools necessary for resolving issues that lead to poverty and homelessness.”
NFL Honors winners
• Most Valuable Player – Patrick Mahomes (QB), Kansas City Chiefs
• Coach of the Year – Brian Daboll, New York Giants
• Offensive Player of the Year – Justin Jefferson (WR), Minnesota Vikings
• Defensive Player of the Year – Nick Bosa (DE), San Francisco 49ers
• Offensive Rookie of the Year – Garrett Wilson (WR), New York Jets
• Defensive Rookie of the Year – Sauce Gardner (DB), New York Jets
• Comeback Player of the Year – Geno Smith (QB), Seattle Seahawks
• Walter Payton Man of the Year – Dak Prescott (QB), Dallas Cowboys
2023 Hall of Fame Class
• Ronde Barber (DB), Tampa Bay Buccaneers
• Darrelle Revis (DB), New York Jets
• Joe Thomas (OT), Cleveland Browns
• DeMarcus Ware (DE), Dallas Cowboys
• Chuck Howley (LB), Dallas Cowboys
• Joe Klecko (DE), New York Jets
• Ken Riley (DB), Cincinnati Bengals
• Don Coryell (Coach), Cardinals/Chargers