Before we get to the Super Bowl, which is only three days away, the NFL Honors is tonight. The top awards in the NFL are up for grabs, including AP Offensive and Defensive Rookie of the Year (ROY). While the 2025 NFL Draft class was considered weaker, the rookies around the league proved otherwise.
This year’s ROY race is a fun one, especially with the offensive rookies.
Tyler Shough, Tetairoa McMillan Among The 2025 ROTY Finalists
Before talking about the ROY case for some of the players, let’s see who the finalists are:
Defensive Rookie of the Year:
- EDGE Abdul Carter – New York Giants
- S Nick Emmanwori – Seattle Seahawks
- EDGE James Pearce Jr. – Atlanta Falcons
- LB Carson Schwesinger – Cleveland Browns
- S Xavier Watts – Atlanta Falcons
Offensive Rookie of the Year:
- QB Jaxson Dart – New York Giants
- WR Emeka Egbuka – Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- RB TreVeyon Henderson – New England Patriots
- WR Tetairoa McMillan – Carolina Panthers
- QB Tyler Shough – New Orleans Saints
Breaking Down Some of the Rookie of the Year Finalists
Starting with the Defensive ROY race, the heavy favorite is Schwesinger, who had an excellent first season. With voters submitting their ballots before the playoffs, the regular season is the only thing assessed. If they had considered the playoffs, Emmanwori might have won the award.
Now onto the Offensive ROY race, this is much closer. Since the regular season ended, the odds for the award have gone all over the place, but at that point, the two at the top were McMillan and Shough.
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It seems the NFC rivalry between the Saints and Panthers has entered the ROY race, but as of now, McMillan is the favorite. This season, McMillan was the top WR on the Panthers and finished with 1,000 yards.
In the PFSN NFL WR Impact Metric, the rookie was 14th in receiving yards (1014), 12th in targets (122), 16th in receiving touchdowns (7), and 44th overall in impact score (75.5).
On the other side of this rivalry, we have Shough, who also has a very good case for ROTY. In his first season, Shough started only 9 games, but he had a significant impact on the Saints. He led the team on a five-game win streak during the final stretch of the season.
Also, today, Shough was named the Pepsi Zero Sugar NFL Rookie of the Year, a fan-voted award.
Fans vote Tyler Shough as Rookie of the Year 👏 pic.twitter.com/7GISOhr07P
— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) February 5, 2026
According to the PFSN NFL QB Impact Metric, looking at the stats in his 11 played games, Shough was 11th in completion percentage (67.6), 18th in rushing yards (186), 13th in rushing touchdowns (3), 31st in passing TDs (10), and 25th in passing yards (2384).
Both rookies have excellent cases for the award, and tonight, we will see who the voters agree with.
