Ranking NFL MVP candidates, awards picks for 2023 season - ESPN

The 2023 NFL regular season has come to a close. With a few days between the end of Week 18 and the start of the playoffs, now seems like a natural time to put together my award ballot for what we saw during the season.

Keep in mind that these picks are my selections for who I believe should win the actual awards, not who will win when the actual voting is revealed before Super Bowl LVIII. I try to use objective data, what I've seen from watching all of these players and teams on film as much as possible throughout the season, and my thoughts from talking to people in and around the league to form my opinions about these award winners. In many cases, these races are so close that there isn't much of a difference between those who finish No. 1 and No. 2 or even No. 1 and No. 3.

I'll start with Coach of the Year, work my way through the offensive and defensive awards, then finish up with a lengthy look at MVP.

Jump to an award:
MVP | Coach of the Year
Best rookies: Offense | Defense
Players of the Year: Offense | Defense

This was a race with four candidates for three spots. Thankfully, two of them were playing in the playoff eliminator on Saturday night, so I decided to award third place to the winner of that matchup.

Ryans and the two players the Texans took in the first round accelerated Houston's rebuild dramatically. While C.J. Stroud and Will Anderson Jr. raised Houston's ceiling on both sides of the ball, Ryans excelled by getting more out of the players he inherited than prior regimes. On defense, seven of the 11 players who played at least 500 snaps were on the roster for Lovie Smith a year ago. The guys who weren't included journeymen such as Sheldon Rankins and Denzel Perryman.

If anything, the players on the