“It’s not exactly an award that people want to be up for but, you know, I found myself in that position and so that one would mean a lot to me.” Joe Burrow’s 2024 season was full of great stats—he finished with the NFL’s third-best passer rating (108.5) and fourth-best completion percentage (70.6). However, to put on this aerial display, he had to overcome some difficult phases. But the results are delightfully fruitful!

On Thursday night at the NFL Honors in New Orleans, the AP awarded the Cincinnati Bengals quarterback the 2024 AP NFL Comeback Player of the Year title. With this, he became the first player to win this award twice (first in 2021) with the same team. In addition, he also tied Chad Pennington as the only two quarterbacks to win it twice.

Joe Burrow was working through a wrist injury in 2023, which also cut short his season. Surgery followed, and doubts crept in. But when he came back in 2024, he didn’t just return he took over. His arm delivered 4,918 passing yards and 43 touchdowns, the best in the league. So, you can see the comeback was undeniable.

That’s the reason why the AP voters agreed, giving him 31 first-place votes and 370 points, making him the clear winner. In this competition, after Joe Burrow, J.K. Dobbins (195 points), Sam Darnold (102), Damar Hamlin (86), and Christian Gonzalez (69) followed the glory.

Before the playoffs even started, a panel of 50 media and NFL members cast their votes for the league’s top awards. And this season, voters included names like Tom Brady, Rich Gannon, Tony Dungy, and ESPN analyst Mina Kimes. Together they voted for Joe Burrow, skipping other opponents. However, some NFL fans disagreed with the voting results.

NFL chose Joe Burrow over Sam Darnold, fans don’t like it!

Most of the NFL fans wanted Sam Darnold to win the Comeback Player of the Year award. Why? Well, we all know that before signing with the Vikings for a 1-year deal, the quarterback was the backup at the 49ers. However, in Minnesota, he led his team to the wildcard round with an amazing 14-3 regular season record. That is why he was named the NFL’s Most Improved Player by the Pro Football Writers of America.

The effortless dominance he showed for most of this season compelled fans to think about him as the Comeback Player of the Year more than Joe Burrow. That’s the reason a fan said, “This 1000000000% should have been Sam Darnold and I’m not even being a hater on Burrow right now.” In addition, some other social media users also voiced their opinion against the NFL and AP, saying, “Sam Darnold is robbed of the Comeback Player of the Year award,” or simply “Sam Darnold robbed.”

Seeing these comments, you can easily tell the frustration of the fans who wanted Darnold to win in the place of Joe Burrow. That’s why one wrote—“Sam Darnold is what “comeback player” represents.” Chiming into it, another one too expressed their disagreement, “Sam Darnold deserved Comeback Player Of The Year. Not a perennial MVP candidate who got hurt. Makes no sense.” This snub puzzled many, as they questioned the voting, and said, “We’re just gonna pretend Sam Darnold doesn’t exist.” Well, it seems the NFL fans are in a heavy debate now!