Who Will Win Comeback Player of the Year?
New York, NY (PSF) — With the announcement of the NFL Awards coming soon, Christian McCaffrey, Geno Smith and Saquon Barkley have been announced to be the finalist for the Comeback Player of the Year award. All three offensive players had amazing seasons however, who will be the one to bring home the award this year?
Christian MCCaffrey
By San Diego Union-Tribune
Before McCaffrey was traded from Carolina to San Francisco, he was not finding much of a rhythm in the backfield. McCaffrey was coming off two injury prone seasons during his 2020 and 2021 season only playing just ten total games. Rushing for only 667 yards and 6 touchdowns during those two seasons as well as catching 54 passes for 492 yard and two touchdowns, McCaffrey’s career was believed to be in somewhat of a decline. This thought quickly changed in the end. At the trade deadline, the 49ers aquired McCaffrey in a trade and since San Francisco has made the trade, they are 11-0 in the regular season with McCaffrey in the lineup. Since McCaffrey has landed in San Fran he has 701 rushing yards and 6 rushing touchdowns as well as 49 catches for 430 yards and 3 touchdowns.
Geno Smith
By 12th Man Rising
The real question going into the 2022 season was who was going to be the starting quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks after the Russell Wilson trade. Was it going to be Geno Smith or Drew Lock? Geno’s career seemed to be the life of a backup quarterback before the season started as he did not have a succesful start with the New York Jets. After multiple injury plagued seasons he signed with the New York Giants as a backup in 2017 and then went to the Los Angeles Chargers in 2018 to back up Phillip Rivers. In 2019, he signed with the Seahawks being a backup behind Russell Wilson for three seasons until Wilson was traded to Denver. After winning the starting job over Drew Lock, Geno threw for over 4,000 passing yards throwing 30 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. He also led the league in completion percentage. Before the season started Seattle was projected to be one of the worst teams in the league however this was switched up and Seattle finished with a 9-8 record. Who is the hero for Seattle though? Was it Geno Smith or Pete Carroll?
SaQuon Barkley
By DraftKings
Saquon Barkley went from being a possible trade target to being a top ten running back during the 2022 regular season. Barkley has had two tough seasons battling injuries. After missing the 2020 season with a torn ACL, the 2021 season was a very disappointing season for the former Offensive Rookie of the Year. During the 2022 season, Barkley had a career high in rushing yardage with 1,312 rushing adding on with that with 10 more touchdowns. With the stats that Barkley put up this offseason, he makes a strong argument why he should win Comeback Player of the Year.