If you’re hoping to see Russell Wilson or Justin Fields win the Comeback Player of the Year Award in 2024, blame Joe Flacco for why that won’t happen. The Associated Press voters elected him the Comeback Player of the Year Award in 2023 over Buffalo Bills DB Damar Hamlin, who literally died the previous season. Flacco simply could not find a team until the Cleveland Browns ran out of quarterbacks.
According to Pro Football Talk, the AP has sent out a clarifying memo regarding what the vote entails. It’s an effort to eliminate votes for players who simply went from bad to good or from benched to playing. The guidance now indicates the award should go to a player who “demonstrated resilience in the face of adversity by overcoming illness, physical injury or other circumstances that led him to miss playing time the previous season”.
In other words, you are not the Comeback Player of the Year if you simply didn’t succeed the previous season. Joe Flacco has largely been a backup in recent seasons but caught lightning in a bottle with the Browns. In 2022, Geno Smith received the award, also for managing to start and win some games after being a backup.
And yes, technically, this isn’t Joe Flacco’s fault at all. Russell Wilson and Justin Fields can’t point the finger at him as the root cause for the change. Flacco even said that Damar Hamlin deserved to win the Comeback Player of the Year Award. The fault is on the AP voters who opted for marginal performance over playing football after having previously died.
Both Russell Wilson and Justin Fields were full-time starters last year, though they both missed time. The Denver Broncos benched Wilson for the final two games because he refused to waive his injury guarantees. Fields missed a four-game stretch due to thumb and shoulder injuries. But he played the final seven games of the season and 13 overall, so he should not qualify.
Joe Flacco winning the award last year sparked outrage given his competition. Though he reverted to a backup role in 2023, Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest in-game in 2022. His heart stopped beating multiple times before being revived.
And any conspiracy theory comments will be deleted, I should mention. You don’t have freedom of speech in the comments section of a sports blog. Damar Hamlin did not die because of a vaccine nor did they replace him with a body double. I mention this because that’s what happened the last time Hamlin came up and it’s not happening again.
Anyway, back to reality, thanks to Joe Flacco (and to a lesser extent, Geno Smith), players who are bad and then good are no longer comeback candidates. And that means the Pittsburgh Steelers won’t have one at quarterback even if they succeed. Neither Russell Wilson nor Justin Fields is overcoming any major adversity beyond their own play.
Arguably their only real candidate might be Minkah Fitzpatrick, who missed seven of the 10 final games. But he still played most of the season and returned for the playoffs, so I doubt he qualifies. Cole Holcomb qualifies, but he isn’t likely to have a starting role. The same goes, to an even greater extent, for Cory Trice Jr.
