Joe Burrow gets proven wrong during NFL Honors and makes history in the process

Burrow, who was up for three awards including MVP and Offensive Player of the Year, already won this award in 2021 after he came back from a torn ACL he suffered during his rookie season. He's now the second player in NFL history to win the award twice, joining former New York Jets and Miami Dolphins QB Chad Pennington. 

But if you had asked Burrow before the show, he wouldn't have expected it. He told Adam Schein of Mad Dog Sports Radio that Cincinnati's failure to make the postseason was why he wasn't expecting any hardware. 

"I would be pretty pumped if I won any of them," Burrow said Thursday. "I don't anticipate winning it any of them, like you said, usually you have to have a lot of team success to be considered for some of those awards, I don't think there's anybody in the league, playing better football than I was this year, but you know that's not not all that goes into it so I don't blame you." 

Winning just one more game would've definitely helped Burrow's chances of winning one of the other awards he was up for, but being an MVP finalist after coming back from a season-ending wrist injury that sparked such skepticism last offseason proved too great of an accomplishment. Burrow led the NFL in passing yards (4,918), passing touchdowns (43), and was the back-to-back AFC Offensive Player of the Month in November and December/January. No QB had won that award in consecutive months in over a decade. 

Trey Hendrickson missed out on Defensive Player of the Year, and Ja'Marr Chase missed out on Offensive Player of the Year. The Bengals, and Burrow, are going home with something.