The Hobson's Choice Awards for the Bengals 2024 season:
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MVP: QB Joe Burrow
Burrow is ascloseasthis to be the MVP of the league.
The Numbers: His 70.552% completion rate nudges Ken Anderson's in 1982 (70.550), but when you round it up, they both have the franchise record at 70.6. When his team needed it the last five win-or-go-home games, he led the league with a ridiculous 76.7.
That run also made Burrow the only player in history other than his idol Drew Brees to have multiple 70-percent passing seasons. During the Super Bowl season of 2021, Burrow banged a 70.4.
Footnote: For a third straight offseason, Burrow remains the NFL's all-time completion percentage leader. He's ballooned to 68.6%, nearly a full point ahead of the old leader, the elder No. 9, Brees, at 67.7. Only Tagovailoa is between them on the all-time list at 68.1.
OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR: WR JA’MARR CHASE
Chase, 24, is the youngest player to win the NFL receiving Triple Crown since Don Hutson did it during FDR's first term nearly 90 years ago.
How about when his team needed it the most in that five-game winning streak to end the season? He led the league with 66 catches, 566 yards and 26 first downs. He was tied for second with four touchdown catches.
The Numbers: Chase is second on the NFL's all-time list averaging 87.5 yards per game behind only Justin Jefferson's 96.5, and ahead of Pro Football Hall of Famer Calvin Johnson's 86.1. In his first 62 games, he's got more yards than Jerry Rice and Randy Moss, more catches than Issac Bruce and Larry Fitzgerald, and more touchdowns than Calvin Johnson and Tyreek Hill.
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR: DE TREY HENDRICKSON
With four sacks against the Raiders and 3.5 in the season finale against the Steelers, he had two of the three biggest games in the league in 2024. And here's another guy who came up big when a loss meant elimination. During those last five games, he led the league with six sacks and was second with 11 quarterback hits.
The Numbers: Over the last two seasons, Hendrickson, with 35 sacks, has a dominant 4.5-sack lead over the Steelers' T.J. Watt and a seven-sack lead over the Browns' Myles Garrett, the 2023 NFL Defensive Player pf the Year.
SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE YEAR: P RYAN REHKOW
Welcome to the quietest record-breaking year in Bengals history.
After the Bengals pounced on him when he was cut by the Chiefs at the beginning of training camp and incumbent Brad Robbins got injured, Rehkow shattered the two biggest single-season records set by Bengals all-time punter Kevin Huber. His 49.1-yard gross average bested Huber by two yards and his 43.3-yard net beat out Huber's 42.8, both set in 2020.
The Numbers: Rehkow took some heat for his holding, particularly on Evan McPherson’s overtime miss against the Ravens. But he also had a lot of big moments that got eclipsed by Burrow, Chase and Hendrickson.
And he had to make the most of it because his 53 punts are the fewest ever by a Bengal in season of 16 or 17 games.
Rehkow started his year with that memorable NFL debut in the opener when he set the NFL record for the highest gross average of at least four punts in a game with 64.5 yards per punt. On his second NFL punt, he boomed a club-record 80-yarder, breaking Kyle Larson's 75-yarder that had stood for 19 years and was tied by Huber in 2013.
He ended it on one of his last punts of the year in the finale in Pittsburgh when he sailed one 57 yards and it was eventually fumbled and recovered in the Bengals' 19-17 win.
The week before, on his only punt against Denver, Rehkow hit a 47-yarder in overtime that forced NFL punt-return leader Marvin Mims Jr. to call a fair catch at his 10. It led to a three-and-out, and the Bengals later won to keep their playoff hopes alive.
BEST SUPPORTING PLAYER: OL CODY FORD
As one Bengals assistant coach breathed after the season, "Where would we have been without Cody Ford?" Ford, a backup guard-tackle, was there when both tackles were hurt going down the stretch, Orlando Brown Jr. on the left and Amarius Mims on the right. In the finale when he started for Mims, he helped keep sackmaster T.J. Watt off he stat sheet despite playing with an injured chest.
The Numbers: According to Elias on a stat that goes back to only 1980, Ford is the only Bengals offensive player to start at four different positions in a season: Tight end, left tackle, left guard, right tackle. In those eight starts, the Bengals were 5-3.
BEST NEWCOMER: TE MIKE GESICKI
In his seventh NFL season, Gesicki made no bones about how he felt about his first year with Burrow. With his stats as well as his quotes. He had 65 catches, second only to his career-best 73 catches in Miami in 2021, and the second most by a Bengals tight end next to Dan Ross' iconic 71 in 1981.
The Numbers: Gesicki looked to have almost as much of a rapport with Burrow as did Chase and his six years with Burrow. Another stalwart in the win-or-else streak, Gesicki's 26 catches were third best among tight ends behind Jonnu Smith (30) and Brock Bowers (28) his 14 first downs were right there with Bowers (18), Sam LaPorta (16), and Smith (15).
COMEBACK PLAYER OF THE YEAR: S TYCEN ANDERSON
Burrow won't mind giving up a Hobson's Choice Award, especially when he should win the big one, the Associated Press Comebacker Player of the Year.
Coming off an Oct. 29, 2023 ACL injury in San Francisco, Anderson came back to not only lead the Bengals with double-digit tackles on special teams this past season, but the club believes he also led the NFL in tackles from the gunner position on punt coverage.
The Number: With Anderson his chief cover player, Rehkow was sixth in NFL net at 43.3 yards per punt, and 10th with 47.2 for percentage of his punts inside the 20.
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: RT AMARIUS MIMS
Mims did everything he had to do as the 18th pick in the draft. AFC pass-rushing werewolves Myles Garrett and T.J. Watt didn't take over the game when he was in there. Neither did the Cowboys' Micah Parsons. Parsons had three hits, but he had no sacks and didn't wreck the game like he did two years ago. Those kinds of outings that have the Bengals loving what they've got in Mims because he already told reporters the biggest jump is year one to year two.
The Numbers: Mims took 846 snaps, more than in his entire college career at Georgia. And the last 14 reinforce exactly what they thought they had. He came off the bench in Pittsburgh with a broken hand when Ford went out with a chest injury, sucked it up, and helped stave off Watt in the win they had to have.
OFFENSIVE ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: TE ERICK ALL JR.
If All hadn't torn his ACL in the ninth game, this would have been a close call with Mims. But when you look at his sheer impact on the Bengals offense, you may have had to have given it to All. His ability to light up people in the run game allowed them to use the most tight-end sets they've used in head coach Zac Taylor's six seasons and make their versatility even more dangerous.
The Numbers: This latest version of The Cincinnati Kid (Fairfield) caught 20 of his 22 targets, eight for first downs, and when Chase told a reporter he thought All had great explosion and potential as a receiver, it put All in awe.
DEFENSIVE ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: DT KRIS JENKINS JR.
Jenkins, the second-round pick has a bigger resume than two other rookies who showed encouraging signs: Defensive tackle McKinnley Jackson (248 plays) and rookie cornerback Josh Newton (508). Newton didn't begin playing regularly until late November and Jackson came on late in the season, but was hampered until then with time lost to a knee injury suffered in training camp.
But Jenkins, with 497 snaps, and had to be rushed into service right away with early injuries to Sheldon Rankins and B.J. Hill, and then with the illness that took Rankins out of the last seven games of the season. And even then, Jenkins began the season dealing with his broken hand.
The Numbers: Jenkins and the Jags' Maason Smith led NFL rookie defensive tackles with three sacks. Jenkins was third with five quarterback hits and fifth with 31 combined tackles. Those 497 snaps were third behind T'Vondre Sweat and Johnny Newton among rookies. They are also the most by a Bengals rookie defensive tackle since Pro Football Reference started counting snaps in 2012.
COACH OF THE YEAR: HC ZAC TAYLOR
Usually, we give this to an assistant coach. But you have to give it to the top man this trip.
Not only was Taylor the play-caller for the most prolific offense in Bengals history, but he also kept the thing on the rails at 0-3 and 4-8 after some of the toughest losses the sport ever concocted.
Still, he got them home to the final day with a shot to make the playoffs. Who would have thought that at dinnertime on Dec. 1? A lot of head coaches couldn't have pulled that off, and a lot of them didn't.
The Numbers: In the 2020s, with or without Joe Burrow, Taylor's teams are 24-11 in December and January.
Plus, the Bengals led the league in passing for the first time in nearly 50 years while scoring the most points in their history.
PLAY OF THE YEAR: DEC. 9 AT DALLAS
If the Bengals lose, they're out of the playoffs. But in primetime, in a 20-20 game, the Bengals turn Jerry World into Mardis Gras. With 61 seconds left, Burrow sees Chase working alone on Cowboys cornerback DaRon Bland, the NFL's defending interceptions leader. It's an out pattern, and Chase is gone as he slides off Bland and takes it 40 yards for the win. Proving yet again, you can never switch off the Bengals as midnight nears.
"it was just a quick-in and quick outs on the outside," Burrow said that night. "The guy was playing off to the field. Ja'Marr, that's a throw that we have all the time. We talk about throwing it inside shoulder so he can turn and make a play and if the corner is off, he's able to do what he does."
The Numbers: Burrow and Chase extended their NFL lead to touchdown catches of at least 40 yards since 2021.
QUOTE OF THE YEAR: ZAC TAYLOR ON JOE BURROW POST DENVER
"I don't know how anybody can stand on the field and watch Joe Burrow and not say he's the best player in the world. You can transfer that argument to Ja'Marr Chase as well and you can argue those two to death. But the clearest thing I can say is I would not trade Joe Burrow for any player in the universe. To me, that's MVP to me."
