The 2025-26 NFL season seemed to have star players dropping left and right. That only creates an abundance of candidates for the Comeback Player of the Year award.
There's a clear favorite and we'll get to him in a minute but there's plenty of other high-profile playmakers who deserve the attention. If the storylines break the right way, perhaps the voters will see things differently than the way things stand at the moment.
QB Kyler Murray
Should Murray fail to win the Minnesota Vikings' QB1 job this summer, his candidacy will take a significant blow. The only path back would be for J.J. McCarthy to be benched early enough for Murray to lead the team to a deep playoff run. That being said, if Murray can do that he should be able to do it from Week 1.
The Vikings also seem to be quarterback rehab central. Kirk Cousins saw multiple Pro Bowl campaigns after being rejected from Washington and Sam Darnold kicked off his eventual Super Bowl ascension with Seattle as the starter in Minneapolis the year before. Will Murray be the next to write a chapter at Minnesota's QB haven?
EDGE Micah Parsons
The top pass rusher in the league tore his ACL in December and only missed three games plus the playoffs. Parsons is also not expected to start the season for the Green Bay Packers as he continues to recover. That could limit his appeal in the eyes of the voters but should he return with the same explosiveness he showed while in Dallas, good luck peeling him off the ballot.
Parsons' 12.5 sacks were enough to earn him first-team All-Pro honors and Defensive Player of the Year consideration in 2025 despite missing that much time. A delayed start to the 2026 campaign shouldn't hamper his chances too much but even just leading the Packers to a playoff berth should give him enough attention to be in the award's conversation.
QB Joe Burrow
The Cincinnati Bengals went just 1-8 in the nine games Burrow missed last year. That just proves how vital he is to the success of the team. His presence elevates the Bengals' playoff chances to near certainty and a return to the postseason in 2026 should all but guarantee his name being among the few considered for the award.
However, Burrow has already won this trophy twice before. At what point do the voters find too many comebacks a detriment to a player's resume when being considered? Burrow's turf toe absences in 2025 don't really measure up to his previous serious injuries. It's a harsh nuance, but anything less than a Super Bowl appearance opens the door for another player to be named a finalist regardless of his performance.
QB Daniel Jones
Who thought we'd ever see Daniel Jones on this list? He did miss significant time due to neck pinches and a torn ACL while with the New York Giants but his follow-up performances never amounted to anything worthy of consideration for this award. Jones suffered not only a fractured fibula but also a ruptured Achilles in 2025 that completely derailed an AFC-leading campaign for the Indianapolis Colts.
If he can pick up where he left off in his hot start with the team (7-1 record) and finish the job with a significant playoff push, he'll definitely be a finalist. It would be quite the turn of luck Jones deserves after he was written off as a first-round bust and looked to be doomed to a life as a backup.
WR Malik Nabers
Here's where things could get fun. The last wide receiver to win Comeback Player of the Year was Keenan Allen in 2017. This could be the year the near-decade-long drought ends. Malik Nabers went down with a torn ACL at the top of the 2025 campaign after a flashy rookie season. He is poised to return with QB Jaxson Dart already getting his rookie jitters out and a new offensive coaching staff.
There's extreme potential for an explosive 2026 from Nabers and Giants fans would welcome it with the team's rebuild supposedly nearing its end stages. Should the LSU product top his 1,200-yard total from 2024 and score north of 15 touchdowns, it would be a shame for him to not at least get recognition as a finalist.
QB Patrick Mahomes
Alright, clearly Mahomes is the favorite to win this award because 2025 was the first time in 10 seasons the Kansas City Chiefs missed the playoffs and the first time in seven years they weren't in the AFC title game. It's abundantly clear the franchise flounders without its MVP and if he's fully recovered from his knee injury, it'll be near impossible to remove him from the top of voters' lists.
In fact, if Mahomes were to just stay healthy for most, if not all, of the upcoming season, then he's a lock for the award. Kansas City's roster may limit how much winning it does in 2026 but Mahomes' return significantly increases its playoff probability regardless. Should the Chiefs get back to the AFC Championship Game, there's just no way Mahomes' name won't be engraved on the award.
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