Williams will not get the award if for no other reason than he simply will only play in six regular season games max. There's no rule that a player must appear in a certain number of games to win an award, but 6 is too little. EDIT: Also, the award has nothing to do with the playoffs. It is my understanding that the voting is done the week before the playoffs start. It won't be too long after that when the winner is announced.
Players have won the award for several different reasons. See post #11 in this thread. You don't need to click on the old post. It's all right here (note that it is not updated because I wrote this two years ago)- Associated Press Comeback Player of the Year Award winners- 1998- Doug Flutie 1999- Bryant Young 2000- Joe Johnson 2001- Garrison Hearst 2002- Tommy Maddox 2003- Jon Kitna 2004- Drew Brees 2005- Steve Smith and Tedy Bruschi What they came back from: Flutie- was out of the league for seven years Young- career-threatening injury that cost him final four games of 1998 season Johnson- missed entire 1999 season Hearst- missed entire 1999 and 2000 seasons Maddox- played in only three games from 1996-2001 Kitna- played in 14 games in 2002, started 12 of them; had 79.1 rating; "led" Bengals to 2-14 record started all 16 games in 2003; had 87.4 rating; led Bengals to 8-8 record; threw 10 more TDs and 1 fewer INT in 2003 than he did in 2002 Brees- was terrible in 2003 (11 TDs, 15 INTs, 67.5 rating); led Chargers to playoffs in 2004 (27, 7, 104.8) Smith- played in only one game in 2004 Bruschi- suffered career-threatening stroke three days after Pro Bowl following the 2004 season PFW/PFWA Comeback Player of the Year winners- 1972- Earl Morrall 1973- Roman Gabriel 1974- Joe Namath 1975- Dave Hampton 1976- Greg Landry 1977- Craig Morton 1978- John Riggins 1979- Larry Csonka 1980- Jim Plunkett 1981- Ken Anderson 1982- Lyle Alzado 1983- Billy Johnson 1984- John Stallworth 1985- no award given 1986- Joe Montana and Tommy Kramer 1987- Charles White 1988- Greg Bell 1989- O.J. Anderson 1990- Barry Word 1991- Jim McMahon 1992- Randall Cunningham 1993- Marcus Allen 1994- Dan Marino 1995- Jim Harbaugh 1996- Jerome Bettis 1997- Robert Brooks 1998- Doug Flutie 1999- Bryant Young 2000- Joe Johnson 2001- Garrison Hearst 2002- Tommy Maddox 2003- Jon Kitna 2004- Willis McGahee 2005- Steve Smith
If you want to give it to a game manager type, give it to Kerry Collins because his team is much better. Chad shouldn't get it just because he sucked last year.
cbssportsline.com: Comeback Player: Antonio Bryant, WR, Bucs. He was out of football in 2007 and now leads the Bucs in receiving with 57 catches for 736 yards and three scores. He always had the ability, but attitude issues held him back. Runner-up: Patriots DE Richard Seymour, Dolphins S Yeremiah Bell, Dolphins RB Ronnie Brown, Panthers QB Jake Delhomme.
Two weeks have elapsed since this thread was created. Right now I think Antonio Bryant is the leading candidate for this award.
Agreed but Delhomme will still get it, especially with a win this week which can very well make Carolina the top dog in the NFC. Bryant's been crazy good with TB but Bucs need the playoffs for some exposure.
The playoffs are irrelevant. Check out the list further up in the thread. Players have won this award even though their team did not go to the playoffs.
