News/Commentary

'NFL Honors' Announce Josh Allen and Kevin O'Connell as top Player and Coach; Four Announced to 2025 Hall of Fame Class

February 7, 2025 by CollegeFootballPoll.com Staff

At the 'NFL Honors' on Thursday, Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills was announced as the league's most valuable player while Kevin O'Connell of the Minnesota Vikings was named the league's top head coach of the 2024-25 season.

Meanwhile, the offensive and defensive player of the year awards went to running back Saquon Barkley of the Super Bowl-bound Philadelphia Eagles, and cornerback Pat Surtain II of the Denver Broncos.

All four of the above-mentioned awards are among the eight bestowed by a 40-member panel of sportswriters by the Associated Press (AP).

Other winners from the AP were quarterback Jayden Daniels of the Washington Commanders for Rookie of the Year (offense), outside linebacker Jared Verse of the Los Angeles Rams for Rookie of the Year (defense), quarterback Joe Burrow of the Cincinnati Bengals for Comeback Player of the Year, and Ben Johnson of the Detroit Lions for Assistant Coach of the Year.

Johnson has since moved on to the Chicago Bears as that franchise's new head coach in a move that was announced on January 21.

Barkley, a Super Bowl MVP betting favorite behind Kansas City Chief's quarterback Patrick Mahomes, also captured the Jim Brown Award.

The awards were mostly decided after the regular season, but announced just three days prior to Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans.

2025 Class of the NFL Hall of Fame

Four players were named as inductees to the NFL Hall of Fame as the Class of 2025. They are Eric Allen, Jared Allen, Antonio Gates and Sterling Sharpe. It's the smallest class since 2005 and the smallest allowed. Among the biggest snubs were Eli Manning and Darren Woodson, who has now been passed over 18 times to take the lead from Eric Allen after he was just announced as an inductee in his 19th year of eligibility.

Eric Allen

Eric spent 14 seasons in the NFL from 1988-2001 and finally was selected to the Hall nineteen years after becoming eligible. He intercepted 54 passes while playing in 16 games every season, except for the 1998 campaign when he appeared in 10 games and the 1989 season when he missed one game. He was a second round draft pick of the Philadelphia Eagles where he played for 7 seasons before moving on to the New Orleans Saints and finishing with the Oakland Raiders for his last four seasons. In his next-to-last campaign, he had 6 picks and returned 3 for touchdowns for his first pick-6's since 1993 when he had 4 of those among his 6 INT's.

Jared Allen

Jared was, perhaps, known for his celebrations more than his statistics. He was a feared pass rusher from the Idaho State Bengals when he was picked by Kansas City in the 4th round of the 2004 NFL Draft. He was another colorful character in the sport who was known to have stripes etched into his mullet to celebrate his sacks. The Vikings acquired him in a trade in 2008 and he collected 22 sacks for Minnesota in the 2011 season. He moved on to the Bears in 2014 and ended his career with Carolina in 2015 for his final 12 games after beginning that season with three games for Chicago. He started 181 of the 187 games in which he appeared and collected 136 sacks. His 4 sacks is a NFL record shared only by Ted Hendricks (1969-1983), Justin Houston (2011-2023) and Doug English (1975-1985).

Antonio Gates

A college basketball player at Kent State, the undrafted free agent was signed by the San Diego Chargers in 2003 and played his entire 16-year career with that franchise while collecting 8 Pro Bowl selections and 6 all-pro selections. His 116 touchdown receptions is the current NFL career record. This was just his second year of Hall eligibility.

Sterling Sharpe

With Sterling's induction, along with Shannon's 2011 induction, the Sharpes become the first set of brothers ever inducted to the Hall of Fame. Brett Favre and Sharpe connected on 45 TD passes during their seven seasons together in Green Bay, second only in Favre's legacy to his 67 TD passes to Antonio Freeman who followed Sharpe. He retired early due to a neck injury and entered the announcer business as an analyst for the NFL Network. He was a first round draft selection (7th pick overall) in1988 out of South Carolina and becomes the first HOF member who played for the Gamecocks. He went over 1,000 yards in five of his seven seasons, finishing with 8,134 yards and 65 touchdowns.

Other Awards

Several other awards were also announced on Thursday night.

Arik Armstead of the Jacksonville Jaguars was presented with the Walter Payton Award as the NFL's Man of the Year. The award honors a player for his charity and volunteer work in the community and not just his performance on the field. The award is, of course, named after the late, great running back who succumbed to a rare from of liver disease on November 1, 1999 at the age of 46. The 1993 NFL Hall inductee and 1996 college hall inductee was nicknamed "Sweetness" for his running style. He won the Man of the Year award in 1977 and it was later named after him in 1999.

The Next Gen Stats Moment of the Year went to rookie QB winner Jared Daniels' Hail Mary touchdown pass against the Chicago Bears.

Josh Allen and wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase of the Cincinnati Bengals were named as the Fed-Ex Air and Ground Players of the Year, while George Kittle of the San Francisco 49ers was the recipient of the Salute to Service Award presented by USAA.

Allen also won the Art Rooney Sportsmanship Award.

Get the full list of NFL honorees.