With the Washington Commanders' season sadly over after a run to the NFC Championship game, it is time to look back on the first year of the Adam Peters and Dan Quinn partnership and hand out some superlatives.
Yes, it is Award Season over here at The Team 980 and The Kevin Sheehan Show and we have several categories and several very deserving winners (and worthy runners-up) after an improbable and extremely fun 2024 NFL season.
Before we get into the winners, let's first discuss the categories there is team MVP, Offensive Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Most Improved, Unsung Hero, Biggest Surprise, and one team-wide category of Favorite Game.
One stipulation is the MVP can't also win OPOY, and it took Kevin Sheehan a split-second (perhaps even less) to award that winner: "Jayden Daniels, like is there a close No. 2. The answer would be no. Don't give me any other options, I know my answer, I don't need to think about this."
Offensive Player of the Year
Sheehan's pick: Terry McLaurin, "Who had his best season of his career."
Producer Denton Day's pick: McLaurin, "I think this year he proved he was a solidified No. 1 [WR] and should be in the conversation for that Top 10 spot, he played awesome."
2024 stats: 82 catches for 1,096 yards and 13 touchdowns. Playoffs: 14 catches for 227 yards and three TDs.
Defensive Player of the Year
Sheehan: Frankie Luvu, "you could make the case for Bobby Wagner, but... I think without [Luvu] it could have been worse, it wasn't great, it could have been worse [on defense]."
2024 stats: 99 tackles (54 solo) with 8.0 sacks, 12 tackles for loss, one forced fumble, two fumble recoveries, seven passes defensed. Playoffs: 17 tackles (10 solo), 1.0 sack, one fumble recovery, two tackles for loss.
Day: Bobby Wagner, "Luvu was close for me, but what it came down to it was you have this veteran leader in Bobby Wagner."
2024 stats: 132 tackles (75 solo), 2.0 sacks, one forced fumble, two fumble recoveries, 10 tackles for loss, four passes defensed. Playoffs: 25 tackles (12 solo), 0.5 sacks, one fumble recovery, one tackle for loss.
Most Improved
Sheehan: Dyami Brown, "The interesting part is we would never have said that before four games to go in the regular season, that's when he started to really come alive. He was targeted the last four games 18 times, he was only targeted 22 times before that."
Day: Dyami Brown, it was down to Brown and Quan Martin, but the WR got the nod because "we were told by previous coaching staffs that this guy couldn't really do anything so once they put more and more on his plate, I thought he ended up being one of their best bubble screen guys and showed in the postseason he can do the deep crosses and the deep in-cuts."
2024 stats: 30 catches for 308 yards and one touchdown. Playoffs: 14 catches for 229 yards and one touchdown.
Unsung Hero
Sheehan: "I had a bunch of guys in mind for this but I ended up picking one that I feel really good about... Dorrance Armstrong. I think he had a really good season. I didn't realize how good of a season he had... he played the most snaps that he ever played in his career... he was third in sacks with five, but first in hurries, first in quarterback hits, and first in quarterback pressures... in the playoff games he had 3.5 sacks."
Day: Tyler Biadasz, the Commanders center's absence was felt in the win over the Saints and he proved his worth again down the stretch.
Biggest Surprise
Sheehan: "For me, it's really easy after the obvious of the team's performance, but in terms of players, the defense being not good at all was a big surprise. I actually thought that the defense with the additions that they made would be better... I just went with the idea that they're gonna be much better coached defensively, I just felt like they would be a better team defensively."
Day: Zach Ertz, the last two seasons in Arizona, 74 receptions for 593 yards and five touchdowns in 17 games. This year in Washington in 17 games (playing every game for only the fourth time in his career) he had 66 receptions for 654 yards and seven touchdowns, but in the playoffs, he had 18 catches for 155 yards and a score to really give the Commanders a bit more than expected.
Favorite Game
Sheehan: Divisional win over the Detroit Lions, 45-31 win
Day: Same
Honorable mention to the win over the Bengals on Monday night with this big Daniels to McLaurin touchdown, the Hail Mary, and the win over the Falcons.
The full segments can be heard on the audio players above.