Tag: Midseason Awards

Pro Football Focus selects one Notre Dame player to win national award

It’s exactly who you think it is

Although we are at the unofficial midpoint of the college football season, many outlets have come out with their midseason All-American teams, award winners and front-runner for the four College Football Playoff spots.

Pro Football Focus released their midseason awards and even though I don’t agree with some of them (Alabama’s [autotag]Bryce Young[/autotag] being the Heisman front runner), there is one we completely agree on, their midseason John Mackey Award winner, Notre Dame tight end [autotag]Michael Mayer[/autotag].

The junior has been phenomenal this season, he’s been the best player on the Irish’s team this season. Through six games this season, Mayer has caught 38 balls for 411 yards and 5 touchdowns. Those are All-American type numbers.

Mayer has been the exception on the Irish offense this fall, in fact, he’s been exceptional. The one constant figure for Notre Dame all season should get recognized as one of the best and this, although not official, is a step towards potentially hoisting some hardware for the star Irish tight end after the season ends.

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Patriots 2023 midseason awards: MVP, Comeback Player of the Year, etc.

It hasn’t been a pretty season, but there are still multiple Patriots players worthy of a mention. Here are the 2023 midseason awards for New England.

It hasn’t felt like a rewarding season so far for the New England Patriots, but even in a year marred with disappointment, there have been multiple players that have stood out on the roster.

Most of those players have been on the defensive side of the ball. Despite being riddled with injuries, the Patriots defense has competed valiantly on a weekly basis.

With a banged-up roster in Week 10, they somehow managed to hold the Indianapolis Colts’ top-10 scoring offense to only 10 points. At the beginning of the season, they looked like one of the best defensive units in the NFL.

Today, we’re handing out some 2023 midseason awards for Patriots players, including MVP, Offensive Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Comeback Player of the Year, Breakout Player of the Year and Most Disappointing Player of the Year.

Dolphins receive midseason award votes in polling of NFL execs

A number of Dolphins received midseason awards votes from NFL execs.

Through the first nine games of their 2023 campaign, the Miami Dolphins have put together a 6-3 record with some incredible performances, including a 70-point output against the Denver Broncos.

With the NFL regular season now consisting of 17 games, there’s no true midpoint in the year, and now seems like a good time to reflect.

Sports Illustrated did this by asking 39 NFL executives (general managers, assistant general managers, vice presidents, directors of player personnel and pro scouting directors) to vote on midseason awards, including MVP, Offensive Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Offensive Rookie of the Year, Defensive Rookie of the Year, Coach of the Year and Executive of the Year.

Four different Dolphins received votes for these awards.

Both quarterback Tua Tagovailoa (two) and wide receiver Tyreek Hill (three) received multiple votes for league MVP, with both leading the NFL in multiple statistics.

The executives voted to give Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson the award, but Miami’s top two offensive players are getting recognition that they deserve.

That continued in the Offensive Player of the Year voting, which Hill won with 21 of the 39 votes. The award has essentially turned into the best non-quarterback offensive player award, and Hill has been just that through nine games.

He beat out Jackson, Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown (seven votes), San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey (six) and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

No Dolphins were considered for Defensive Player of the Year or either of the top rookie honors, but two members of the organization who don’t put on the uniform each week were recognized for their efforts.

Mike McDaniel received 2.5 votes for  Coach of the Year, finishing in fifth place behind Dan Campbell, John Harbaugh, Nick Sirianni, DeMeco Ryans and Doug Pederson. If the Dolphins see improvement down the stretch and beat some teams with winning records, McDaniel will jump up the list at the end of the year.

Meanwhile, general manager Chris Grier received votes for Executive of the Year. His three votes put him in fifth as well, behind Howie Roseman (13), Brad Holmes (8.5), Eric DeCosta (five) and Nick Caserio (3.5). Grier’s trade for Jalen Ramsey and signings of key contributors like David Long Jr. and DeShon Elliott have already impacted their season and could be a huge part of why they make a run this year.

With the amount of talent that the Dolphins have on the field, on the coaching staff and in the front office, the sky is the limit for their potential, and it’s a big reason why they’re in first place in the AFC East and among the top four in the conference heading into their bye week.

Texas Football: Midseason awards for seven players

From defensive MVP to newcomer, here are the midseason awards for Texas through the first six weeks.

The No. 9 Texas Longhorns are 5-1 through the first six weeks of the season. Believe it or not, Texas still has a great chance to make the Big 12 conference championship game and the College Football Playoff.

The Longhorns are scoring an average of 35 points per game while allowing only 16.3 points on the defensive side, a significant improvement from last year’s nearly 23 points per game.

Over the past six weeks, we have seen significant improvements in the team’s mindset and performance on the field compared to last year.

This Texas team feels different, and although they were handed their first loss last week, the Longhorns still control their own destiny and will look to achieve a conference championship in December.

From monsters on the defensive line to newcomers, here are my midseason awards for seven Texas players.

49ers awards at 2022 season’s halfway point

We handed out some midseason awards for the #49ers at the bye week:’

The NFL’s move to a 17-game schedule has made it impossible to split the season in half. Instead, we’ll go by weeks since those are still an even number at 18. San Francisco is on its bye for Week 9, which means it’s time to give out some first-half awards.

It was a tumultuous first eight games for the 49ers with injuries on both sides off the ball, a quarterback change, and a handful of ugly losses that led them to a 4-4 record at their bye week.

We sifted through the good, bad and ugly from the first half to suss out some mid-season awards:

Arkansas football freshman power rankings: No surprise at No. 1

Arkansas hasn’t played many freshmen in 2021, but these five have had an impact.

Freshmen in the SEC often find college football tough sledding. Rare is the time a first-year player provides a massive spark to his program. Rare, but not unheard of.

Arkansas has a number of first-year players who have affected the season in a positive way.

Coach Sam Pittman and his position coaches haven’t played many of their freshmen. Arkansas is, after all, a team still building depth and with several super-seniors choosing to return after the 2020 was largely a wash, the Razorbacks a bit more upperclassmen depth than they would have in a normal year.

Still, a few of the young bucks have affected the season in a positive way. Here is a midseason-ish look at the five who have done the most.

Ed Orgeron and LSU among midseason takeaways that are less than flattering

A couple midseason takeaways that no one wanted to hear.

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The midseason mark is officially here for the LSU Tigers and for most of the college football teams in the FBS. After six games the team sits at 3-3 (1-2) and overall are 8-8 since the beginning of the 2020 season.

The college football staff at ESPN spent some time discussing their midseason takeaways, of course, one topic of conversation being the LSU Tigers. However, when the Tigers came up it was less than flattering for the purple and gold.

The first time they uttered the name LSU it was when discussing the biggest disappointment of the season. Two of the analysts on the panel went with the LSU Tigers and their poor performance over the last 16 games since the title-winning performance.

Chris Low:

LSU has recruited far too well to be staring down the barrel of a second straight non-winning season. The Tigers, ranked No. 16 in the AP preseason poll, are 3-3 and still have to face Florida, Ole Miss, Alabama, Arkansas and Texas A&M. The magical 2019 national championship season seems like forever ago, and the real drama now in Baton Rouge is whether Ed Orgeron will make it through the season

Alex Scarborough:

To see LSU the last season and a half is to almost forget what happened in 2019. The team that went undefeated and won a national championship is gone in mind, body and spirit. It has been replaced by a program that’s 8-8 since the start of last season and is still struggling to find its footing. What’s most perplexing is how they’ve lost, no longer able to run the ball effectively or play above-average defense. Who would have ever thought we’d say those two things about LSU? Give Orgeron credit for trying to make a course correction after the train wreck of last season, revamping the coaching staff and hiring two new coordinators, but it doesn’t appear to be working. Now he’s in danger of becoming another Gene Chizik, who led Auburn to the national championship only to be fired a short time later.

The other teams mentioned were the UNC Tar Heels, Clemson Tigers, USC Trojans, and last year’s darling, Iowa State.

Among the other topics of discussion was the favorite coaching storyline, David Hale went with the Ed Orgeron situation brewing down on the Bayou.

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Ravens’ midseason awards

With 8 games in the rearview mirror, we take the time to look over the first half of the Baltimore Ravens’ 2020 season to hand out awards

With their eighth game in the books, the Baltimore Ravens have made it to the midseason mark. While things can and likely will change over the final eight games, the beginning half of the season paints a good picture of where Baltimore’s 2020 season is headed. As we’ll do at the end of the season, we here at Ravens Wire wanted to hand out awards to commemorate the first half and shout out some excellent play as well as some not-so-great performances.

We got four writers together — Matthew Stevens, Neil Dutton, Alex Bente, and Kevin Oestreicher — to pick our winners and give a little reasoning for the choices. The following selections were all unanimous unless noted otherwise.

Let’s see who we all voted for the Ravens’ midseason awards.

3 Chargers players that have exceeded expectations in 2019

Chargers Wire’s Gavino Borquez lists three players that have rose to the occasion, which many may have not anticipated.

Despite being hampered by injuries this season, the Chargers still possess one of the most talented rosters in the NFL. While there are players that had high expectations heading into the year, there were a few that weren’t talked about as much and have exceeded many people’s expectations.

With that, here are three Chargers players that have been good in a surprising manner in 2019.

C Scott Quessenberry

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Starting center Mike Pouncey was a hit with a season-ending injury in October, which forced the Chargers to turn to the former UCLA product to fill the void.

Quessenberry, the La Costa native, grew up as a Chargers fan. He wears the number that former Charger great Nick Hardwick wore in No. 61 in hopes to have a big impact on the team that he’s always supported.

In five games played, he’s made an impact on the offensive side of the ball that many may have not been expecting from him when filling in for a four-time Pro Bowler.

But you can tell that the second-year player has used that time learning from one of the best at the center position.

Quessenberry has kept pressure away from quarterback Philip Rivers on the inside by using his high football IQ to recognize blitzes and execute his blocks, along with opening up running lanes for running backs Melvin Gordon and Austin Ekeler.

Pouncey is slated to become a free agent after the 2020 season, which means that if the Chargers feel like they have something in Quessenberry, they could move on from Pouncey and make Quessenberry the long-term center.

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