Nick Bosa has been named the NFL’s best defensive player.
His award leads a list of honors for a few 49ers at this year’s NFL Honors.
After a league-leading 18.5-sack season (with Samson Ebukam’s 5.0 sacks second on the team), Bosa was awarded Defensive Player of the Year on Thursday night.
Here’s how the voting broke down. Hint: it wasn’t even close, and Micah Parsons didn’t even secure a first-place vote:
- Nick Bosa: 237 points and 46 first-place votes
- Micah Parsons: 101 points, but did not garner a first-place vote
- Chris Jones: 56 points and one first-place vote
- Haason Reddick: Two first-place votes
- Quinnen Williams: One first-place vote
The other big winner was DeMeco Ryans, now the head coach of the Houston Texans.
Ryans, after leading the league’s best defense, was named assistant coach of the year, also by a convincing margin. Here’s how the voting shook out:
- DeMeco Ryans (49ers DC): 206 points, 35 first-place votes and named on 48 of 50 ballots
- Ben Johnson (Lions OC): 113 points, 11 first-place votes.
- Shane Steichen (Eagles OC): 26 points, no first-place votes.
Others garnering first-place votes were: Bills defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier; Bengals defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo; Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon; and Eagles offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland.
His former boss, Kyle Shanahan, came up just short. Shanahan lost out to first-year head coach Brian Daboll of the New York Giants.
It was a tight race:
- Brian Daboll, Giants: 123 points, 16 first-place votes
- Kyle Shanahan, 49ers: 100 points, 12 first-place votes
- Doug Pederson, Jaguars: 75 points; five first-place votes
- Sean McDermott, Bills: 48 points, seven first-place votes
- Nick Sirianni, Eagles: 45 points, six first-place votes
- Kevin O’Connell, Vikings: 23 points, one first-place vote
- Dan Campbell, Lions: 15 points, one first-place vote
- Andy Reid, chiefs: 10 points, two first-place votes
Also a runner-up was Christian McCaffrey. McCaffrey, after missing much of the past two season with injury, was a massive part of the 49ers’ success this season.
He lost out on Comeback Player of the Year to Geno Smith. Here’s the first-place voting breakdown:
Brock Purdy was also named. Despite not playing more than half of the season, he finished third in NFL offensive rookie of the year voting. Garrett Wilson of the Jets took home the award.
- Garrett Wilson, WR, Jets: 156 points, 18 first-place votes, 19 second-place votes
- Kenneth Walker IV, RB, Seahawks: 129 points, 19 first-place votes, 8 second-place votes
- Brock Purdy, QB, 49ers
One snub outside of the normal Honors voting was Patrick Willis, who was not named to a five-person Hall of Fame class. The good news is that former Dolphins linebacker Zach Thomas, who played 13 seasons, was inducted after a longer period of eligibility.
Generally, Hall of Fame voters will induct a more veteran player if it’s a close vote. Willis’ time for induction could happen in the coming years.
