Cleveland Browns quarterback Joe Flacco surprisingly gained the NFL’s Comeback Participant of the 12 months award on Thursday evening, beating out Buffalo Payments defensive again Damar Hamlin, Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield and Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford.
Flacco joined the Browns late within the season as a free agent and took over the beginning quarterback job following the season-ending harm to Deshaun Watson. The Browns went 4-1 in his 5 regular-season begins to steer the groups playoffs.
Whereas Flacco’s story was undoubtedly a constructive one for him and the Browns, it’s actually troublesome to see the way it warrants profitable a significant award. Particularly given a few of the different candidates within the league this season.
The slam dunk decide would have been Hamlin for his return to the sphere after struggling a cardiac arrest final season in a recreation towards the Cincinnati Bengals. He didn’t play a significant position within the Payments protection this season, showing in simply 5 video games and recording solely two tackles. The counterpoint to that’s clearly that he almost died on the sphere and got here again the subsequent season to play NFL soccer.
There’s no person getting back from something greater than that. There’s additionally no person that may have questioned the outcome if he had gained.
Even with that, there may be nonetheless a manufacturing and high quality of play factor to the award. To that extent, Flacco did produce greater than Hamlin.
However did he produce sufficient to warrant the award? And what precisely did he come again from? Particularly when in comparison with a participant like Stafford, who would have been a extra logical selection.
Not like Flacco, Stafford truly got here again from a big harm that at one level was thought to doubtlessly finish his profession. He not solely performed all however one recreation through the season, he performed at an especially excessive stage all year long and was even higher than he was previous to his harm a yr in the past.
The one factor Flacco got here again from was being unsigned as a free agent to play at a barely increased stage than he did the yr earlier than.
It is only a unusual selection by the voters. Flacco did not play at a very excessive stage and he did not come again from something that put his profession in jeopardy. These are often the sorts of gamers that win this award. Flacco did not match any of that.
