The Associated Press and the NFL Network announced on Wednesday that the end of the year awards (most of them being AP awards) for the NFL will be unveiled during the Super Bowl week on the NFL Network, ending with the announcement of the Most Valuable Player coming on Super Bowl Sunday. Each award will be revealed at 7 p.m. on NFL Total Access, except for the MVP announcement, which will come during the NFL Network's NFL GameDay Morning.
The truth is we were going to make this post about the Bengals and which players could be up for any of these awards. Then after three minutes of laughing, we thought the closest we could come was Carlos Dunlap for Defensive Rookie of the Year. But considering that Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh is the only rookie named to the 2011 Pro Bowl and Dunlap got a late start to the season, there was little shot for Dunlap. Not only that, but he'd have a trio of rookie safeties that had good years to contend with. And typically four-win teams do not favor much of an argument for rookies unless that player was dominating throughout the season.
The schedule for the awards is as follows:
Date | Award |
Monday, January 31 | Comeback Player of the Year |
Tuesday, February 1 | Offensive Player of the Year |
Wednesday, February 2 | Coach of the Year |
Thursday, February 3 | Pepsi Rookie of the Year** |
Friday, February 4 | Offensive and Defensive Rookie of the Year |
Saturday, February 5 | Defensive Player of the Year |
Sunday, February 6 | Most Valuable Player |
**Pepsi Rookie of the Year is not a part of The Associated Press’ slate of NFL awards. However, the winner will be announced exclusively on NFL Network Thursday, Feb. 3 during Super Bowl week. |