Before the season, it would have been very difficult to predict our NFL midseason award winners.
Now that we’re at the 2025 season’s midway point, we surveyed FOX Sports’ NFL reporters to get their picks for each of the league’s major awards. The MVP race seems to be as compelling as ever without a clear favorite, while both Rookie of the Year awards are up for grabs, only adding to the intrigue.
So, let’s take a look at our staff’s picks for each of the major NFL awards halfway through the season.
Ben Arthur: Drake Maye has been the NFL’s most consistently dominant and efficient quarterback this season. And quite frankly, it’s not even close.
In Sunday’s win over the Atlanta Falcons, the former UNC star recorded at least 200 passing yards and a 100-plus passer rating for the eighth straight game. He’s just the fourth quarterback in league history to accomplish that feat in a single season, according to Next Gen Stats. It so happens that the other passers to achieve the milestone — Peyton Manning (2004), Tom Brady (2007) and Aaron Rodgers (2011,2020) — all won MVP that season.
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Through nine weeks, Maye leads the NFL in completion rate, completion rate over expected and expected points added, per NGS. He’s all the more difficult to game plan against because of his mobility and deep-throwing ability.
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Henry McKenna: If the MVP is a quarterback (and it will be), then the OPOY will be a non-QB skill player. And for me, that’s Jonathan Taylor, who has been the centerpiece as the Colts dismantle opposing defenses in ways comparable to the 2007 Patriots and the turn of the century Rams, the so-called “Greatest Show on Turf.”
That still doesn’t really make sense, comparing Daniel Jones and Taylor’s unit to Tom Brady and Randy Moss’ group. But that’s what the statistics are telling us, which is all the more reason to support Taylor’s candidacy for this award.
But it’s obviously not just about the team stats. It’s about what Taylor is on pace to do: 1,690 rushing yards, 412 receiving yards, and 26 total touchdowns. Taylor is perfect for this system. With that kind of production, he should easily edge a receiver like Ja’Marr Chase or even Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
Greg Auman: This isn’t an easy one to pick. Myles Garrett has 10 sacks, one off Brian Burns’ NFL-leading 11, and Garrett leads the NFL with 15 tackles for loss. But five of his sacks came in one game, and he’s on a 2-6 team. This is an individual honor, but it carries more weight if you’re leading the defense on a successful team. You can make a case for Micah Parsons, a big part of why Green Bay is 5-2-1 with a top-five defense.
For me, the most important currency for a defensive player is game-changing plays, and Hutchinson already has four forced fumbles to go with seven sacks. Garrett has one forced fumble, Parsons has none, so what Hutchinson has done in generating takeaways more than offsets a few more sacks by other players.
I can understand choosing Garrett here, and I’ll also mention Nik Bonitto of the Denver Broncos and Will Anderson Jr. of the Houston Texans, both leading top-five defenses. But for now, a close call goes to Hutchinson.
A healthy Aidan Hutchinson has made Detroit’s defense an elite unit once again. (Todd Rosenberg/Getty Images)
Offensive Rookie of the Year: Tyler Warren, TE, Indianapolis Colts
Ralph Vacchiano: This is shaping up as an incredible race with three impressive candidates at receiver and tight end, who all have emerged as top weapons for their teams, plus one electric rookie quarterback in New York. But while Jaxson Dart may be hard to beat in the long run, the receivers and tight ends were the most dynamic players of the first half.
Panthers wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan (37 catches, 512 yards, two touchdowns) is thriving despite a mess of a quarterback situation in Carolina. And Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Emeka Egbuka (34-562-6) has been a strong weapon even as all the rest of the team’s receivers have collapsed around him.
But neither has been more impressive than Colts tight end Tyler Warren (37-492-3), who not only is keeping pace with those electric receivers, but he’s doing it while being a strong blocker, too. Tight ends historically don’t put up big receiving numbers as rookies, but Warren is on the same historic pace that the Raiders’ Brock Bowers was on last season. He’s been a big-play factor in the Colts’ revived offense, and he’s a huge help to what has become the sixth-best rushing attack in the league.
In the end, Warren might not be able to keep up with the numbers of Egbuka and McMillan — and if Dart can put together a couple of big games and steal a few more wins, it might not matter anyway — but he certainly is keeping pace right now. And he does a heck of a lot more, too.
Ralph Vacchiano: There is not a single defensive rookie who jumps off either the stat sheet or the film so far this year, which makes this race wide open. It also makes it fitting that the steadiest rookie of them all is the midseason pick for this award.
Browns linebacker Carson Schwesinger is definitely not flashy, but he’s everywhere in the Cleveland defense. His 64 tackles rank 11th in the entire league. He does have one sack and one interception but generally doesn’t have game-changing plays. He has just been good and smart, both in run defense and coverage.
Whether that’s good enough to win the award in the end remains to be seen, because the competition might be fierce in the second half. Giants edge rusher Abdul Carter looks, at times, like the most disruptive rookie in the NFL, but he’s having trouble finishing (just a half sack). Eagles linebacker Jihaad Campbell has been generally just as solid and impressive as Schwesinger, but Schwesinger stands out for his steady play all season. That might be the winning strategy the way this race is shaping up.
Coach of the Year: Shane Steichen, Indianapolis Colts
Eric D. Williams: Kyle Shanahan is a worthy candidate because of his ability to keep the San Francisco 49ers competitive through a rash of injuries, which included losing his two best defensive players for the season in Nick Bosa and Fred Warner. Mike Vrabel earns a mention for his quick turnaround in New England. Todd Bowles in Tampa Bay, Mike Macdonald in Seattle and Mike Tomlin in Pittsburgh also deserve a tip of the hat.
However, my midseason award goes to the coach of another team with lowered expectations entering this season. Colts head coach Shane Steichen has the league’s top offense, led by the NFL’s latest reclamation project at quarterback in Daniel Jones. Running back Jonathan Taylor is playing at an MVP level, and the Colts have a chance to earn the top seed in the AFC. It’s an impressive coaching job for a guy under immense pressure to perform at the start of the season, along with Colts general manager Chris Ballard.
Daniel Jones (left) and Shane Steichen have been a match made in heaven this season. (Michael Hickey/Getty Images)
Ben Arthur: There are a lot of strong candidates here, but Niners do-everything running back Christian McCaffrey stands out through nine weeks.
After missing 13 games last season, he has returned to superstar form — though it feels like he’s a bit under the radar because of San Francisco’s injury issues. McCaffrey leads the NFL in scrimmage touches (229) and yards (1,222). The two-time All-Pro is also on pace to have more than 1,000 yards rushing and receiving in a single season for the second time.
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