NFL Creates New Comeback Player Award Guidelines After Damar Hamlin-Joe Flacco Debate

The Associated Press has provided guidelines for voters choosing their picks for the NFL Comeback Player of the Year award.

“The spirit of the AP Comeback Player of the Year Award is to honor a player who has demonstrated resilience in the face of adversity by overcoming illness, physical injury or other circumstances that led him to miss playing time the previous season,” AP senior NFL writer Rob Maaddi, the All-Pro and NFL awards voting overseer, told voters (h/t Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk).

Mike Florio of PFT spoke more on the matter.

Smith also added more insight:

“Changing the criteria of the award began to gain momentum after Geno Smith won Comeback Player of the Year in 2022. Smith played well that year after having been mostly a backup the year before, but he wasn’t overcoming an illness or injury. The same could be said of Joe Flacco, who won the award in 2023 but again was coming back only from a career decline.”

The news comes four months after then-Cleveland Browns (and now Indianapolis Colts) quarterback Joe Flacco’s controversial CPOY win over Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin.

Flacco hadn’t been a team’s established QB1 since the first half of the 2019 season with the Denver Broncos, bouncing around as a backup for four years. But he was called off the couch and eventually into the Browns’ starting lineup after Cleveland suffered injuries at QB. Flacco was fantastic for Cleveland, leading the Browns into the playoffs after throwing for 1,616 yards and 13 touchdowns in five games.

Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest on the field during the Bills’ road game against the Cincinnati Bengals on Jan. 2, 2023. Remarkably, Hamlin returned to the field as a part-time player in 2023, appearing in seven games (including playoffs) and 111 snaps (94 special teams, 17 defensive). He finished with four tackles.

There’s no doubt that Flacco was exceptional upon his return and well-deserving of admiration for his play. However, it’s hard to argue that he made a better comeback than Hamlin, who was near death less than one year before returning to the field and making the Bills’ active roster.

Per PFT’s Charean Williams, Flacco won with 151 total points (13 first-place votes). Hamlin had more first-place votes (21) but fewer points, in part because eight voters left Hamlin off their ballot.

The result didn’t sit well with some voters. Peter King of NBC Sports notably called it “absurd.”

“It’s ridiculous that Joe Flacco, who came back from sitting on his couch for two-and-a-half months, won Comeback Player over Damar Hamlin, who came back from having to be resuscitated back to life on a football field last January. What’s stronger than ridiculous? Absurd? Okay. It was absurd.”

With the new guidelines in place, though, it’s highly likely Hamlin would have won this one. We’ll ultimately see how the guidelines affect next year’s vote, which will be revealed in February at the NFL Honors show.