Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels was sensational this past season as a rookie, leading his team to the NFC Championship Game and breathing life into the Commanders franchise. He was and is deserving of the NFL Rookie of the Year honors he received, but two things can be true at once: Bo Nix was an absolute snub at the NFL Awards in 2025.
Nix finished third in the overall NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year voting, receiving zero first-place votes, only 15 second-place votes, 21 third-place votes, 15 fourth-place votes, and one fifth-place vote. Nix finished behind not only Daniels -- again, a deserving winner of the award -- but also Las Vegas Raiders tight end Brock Bowers.
Bowers undoubtedly deserves recognition for setting the rookie tight end receptions record in his first year with the Raiders, but it seems like Nix's rookie season was completely overlooked for no good reason. Jayden Daniels took OROY honors in an absolute landslide, which is debatable in itself, but for Nix to not receive a single first-place vote is mind-boggling. The fact that he received less than half as many second-place votes as Bowers (who received one first-place vote) is even crazier.
Nix was behind Drake Maye on a number of ballots and left off of others entirely. This is absolute nonsense from people who are covering the NFL.
Bo Nix left off Offensive Rookie of the Year ballots, behind Drake Maye in others
In the interest of complete transparency, and new in 2025, the AP voters had their entire ballots exposed to the public. This is fantastic for the person consuming NFL content because these types of things can really help inform whether or not you're going to listen to someone or do anything more than take their opinions with a grain of salt.
In total, four voters left Nix off of their ballot completely. He was listed as 4th or 5th on eight of the 50 available ballots. So out of 50 credentialed and supposedly respected NFL writers or media members, only 38 determined that Bo Nix was worthy of top three NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year consideration.
Never mind the fact that Nix finished second all-time with 29 touchdown passes as a rookie, or that he had more total touchdowns (34) than any other rookie in the entire NFL this past year. He was also first among rookies in passing yards.
It's hysterical that anyone would have voted Drake Maye ahead of Nix after what we saw this past season. If not for the absolutely silly year from Jayden Daniels -- who was a deserving winner -- Nix's rookie year would have been historic for most quarterbacks. He didn't throw a touchdown pass until Week 4 and still finished just two touchdown passes shy of Justin Herbert's all-time record of 31.
Not only that, but Nix also led a Broncos team that everyone had counted out back to the playoffs. He was at the helm of an offense that finished top-10 in points scored.
As cool as it was to see Brock Bowers dominate his position -- and he is outstanding as well -- it's really a shame that people in the NFL media world are continuing to drum up reasons for us to have to defend Bo Nix in some way. Why is what he did this past season being so diminished by so many loud voices in the NFL world?