Who is NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year? Bengals, Cardinals lead way
Watching Jay Cutler lead the Chicago Bears to victory served as notice for just how good a season he is having.
He won’t be found among the league leaders in passing yards (he’s ranked 24th) or touchdown passes (tied for 19th) but — with part of that tied to missing parts of two games — but has done everything that could be expected out of him after most of Chicago had moved on and assumed the Bears would at some point soon, too.
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Instead, he led the Bears to a fourth-quarter comeback on Monday night and has played some of his best ball in Chicago after a poor 2014 season. It’s almost a certainty he’ll be back starting for the Bears, whether or not Adam Gase remains his offensive coordinator or if he gets a head-coaching job elsewhere.
But Cutler might not even be in the top three or four candidates for Comeback Player of the Year honors.
In what has been a strong season for bouncing back, we’ve seen strong play from Kansas City Chiefs safety Eric Berry, who was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma last year; Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, whose 2014 season was shut down early amid reports of harming his child; Oakland Raiders receiver Michael Crabtree, who has rebounded from an Achilles injury to have a fine season; Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Doug Martin, who had been written off almost completely after two declining seasons.
Oh, but there are so many more.
Respecting the Cincinnati Bengals’ season finally? Wondering why the major improvement? Look no further than the healthy return of pass catcher Marvin Jones and Tyler Eifert. Throw in another year removed from defensive tackle Geno Atkins, who has returned to top form, and you can see why they have won every game. Oh, and Andy Dalton — he’s come back to being booed at a celebrity softball game in his own city, which is, you know, major.
What about the Arizona Cardinals? Larry Fitzgerald, Chris Johnson and Carson Palmer make up the get-off-my-lawn trio that remains a viable three-headed monster despite their age and the recent hurdles they’ve had to overcome, and DB Tyrann Mathieu is back from an ACL tear to being a force in the secondary again.
We haven’t even mentioned New York Jets receiver Brandon Marshall, Jets running back Chris Ivory, San Francisco 49ers linebacker NaVorro Bowman, Green Bay Packers receiver James Jones, Buffalo Bills offensive guard Richie Incognito, Cowboys running back Darren McFadden, Cowboys defensive end Greg Hardy, Cowboys linebacker Sean Lee, New Orleans Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan, Oakland Raiders pass rusher Aldon Smith and New England Patriots safety Patrick Chung.
Had Patriots running back Dion Lewis not suffered a torn ACL, he also would have been a fine and intriguing candidate. Of course, considering Peterson or Hardy (and maybe Incognito or Smith) in the comeback argument requires a little definition broadening … and perhaps a no-scruples clause, as well.
But it shows how hard it is to make season-long predictions without knowing whether players coming back from suspension, injury or just a season-long slump will find their way back in such a tough league.
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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm
