Comeback Player of the Year criteria changing, Geno Smith’s win reportedly among reasons

Two years ago, Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith wrote back to everyone by winning AP Comeback Player of the Year. He’ll go down in history as the only Seahawks player to win an NFL Honors award in the Pete Carroll era, and probably one of the last players to ever win Comeback Player of the Year in this fashion.

Yes, it looks like after last year’s debate over whether Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin should’ve gotten the CPOY nod over Joe Flacco, the criteria for winning this award is changing. Here’s what Associated Press Senior NFL Writer Rob Maaddi revealed on Tuesday.

Here’s the criteria we’ll ask voters to consider starting this season for the AP Comeback Player of the Year award:

The spirit of the AP Comeback Player of the Year award is to honor a player who has demonstrated resilience in the face of adversity by overcoming illness, physical injury or other circumstances that led him to miss playing time the previous season.

I would assume that Hamlin would’ve won Comeback Player of the Year had this criteria existed last season. While he only played in five games and 111 regular season snaps in 2023, that’s five games and 111 snaps more than anyone had expected after he went into cardiac arrest on the field in Week 17 of the 2022 season.

Pro Football Talk reports that “changing the criteria of the award began to gain momentum after Geno Smith won Comeback Player of the Year in 2022.” Flacco coming out of semi-retirement to help lead the Cleveland Browns to the playoffs was evidently what put the need for change over the top.

I’ll absolutely contend that unlike Flacco, who won Super Bowl MVP and was a good starter on a perennial powerhouse for years in Baltimore, Geno’s extraordinary circumstances should still be worthy of at least a nomination. Prior to becoming QB1 in 2022, his last real chance to regain his New York Jets starting job ended in a near instant ACL tear after he replaced Ryan Fitzpatrick back in 2016.

In fairness, this adjustment at least provides clarity moving forward for fans as to what to expect out of this award. It’s effectively a “returned from serious injury/medical issue” honor moving forward.