Full list of winners for major categories
In the days leading up to Super Bowl 58, the NFL honored the best and brightest figures from the 2023 season.
The annual “NFL Honors” show serves as the league’s forum to recognize its top performers from the past season, with a wide array of awards — including Most Valuable Player, Coach of the Year and Walter Payton Man of the Year – being handed out. Here’s a full rundown of all the major awards handed out:
Heyward has long been one of the NFL’s most respected players both on and off the field. Now, the Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle has earned some well-deserved recognition for his work on both fronts. He was the Steelers’ nominee for the award for the sixth time in his career.
His charitable endeavors have included The Heyward House Foundation and Craig’s Closet, and he has also been involved with Cafe Momentum Pittsburgh and UPMC Children’s Hospital.
“Cameron Heyward’s character and contributions to his community are recognized by his teammates, the community, and greater NFL family,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement. “As a Pittsburgh native and a Steeler, he has made a unique contribution to his hometown through his dedication to literacy, mentorship and social justice.
“His leadership through initiatives such as The Heyward House Foundation, Suiting Up for Success and the Voices of Hope Scholarship have provided those in need crucial support in a time of need. We are extremely proud to name Cameron Heyward as our 2023 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year.”
NFL MVP: Baltimore Ravens QB Lamar Jackson
Jackson did it again — and it was almost unanimous for a historic second time. The Baltimore Ravens quarterback was voted as the Associated Press NFL MVP, earning 49 of 50 first-place votes. One vote went to Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen.
Jackson, 27, previously won the award in a unanimous decision — just the second in NFL history — in 2019.
After a contentious standoff between Jackson and the Ravens engulfed much of the early portion of the offseason, the two sides agreed to a five-year, $260 million contract extension.
Under first-year offensive coordinator Todd Monken, Jackson helped pilot the Ravens to an NFL-best 13-4 record in the regular season. Baltimore would ultimately fall to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC championship game.
Flacco was talking with a small group of Cleveland-area writers the final Friday of the Browns’ regular season when he was asked if he was having as much fun as at any point in the quarterback’s 16year NFL career.
The question led the former Super Bowl 47 Most Valuable Player back to where his season actually started, which was at his suburban Philadelphia home.
“Everybody always asks just about being at home,” Flacco said at the time. “And I think, just the last few years in general, just being a backup and feeling like I could play and then sitting at home and still feeling like I could play, it does give you a new perspective on things and how fortunate you are to do this. So when you’re out there, I think it’s impossible for that not to come through in certain ways. It’s impossible to hold that, not that I’m out there actively thinking about that, but I think it’s just impossible to not let that come out in some way.”
For Flacco, it came out over an unforgettable final five-week stretch of the regular season that propelled the Browns into the playoffs. The recognition for that came when the 39-year-old quarterback was honored as the NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year.
Flacco, who went 4-1 with 1,616 passing yards and 13 touchdowns in the regular season for the Browns, edged out the Buffalo Bills’ Damar Hamlin. Hamlin, who went into cardiac arrest on the field during a 2022 game in Cincinnati, was