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The NFL Honors Award Show was hosted in New York City on Saturday night. Two Eagles players took home awards. One Eagles coach did not.
Eagles head coach finished fourth in Coach of the Year voting. That seems low. I'm not sure any other NFL coach did more with less in only one year than Chip Kelly did with the 2013 Eagles. He took an Eagles roster that went 4-12 in 2012 and shaped them into 10-6 team that won the NFC East Division Championship and made it to the 2014 NFL playoffs. Under Kelly, the Eagles broke a number of records including one by the coach himself. Kelly became the second head coach ever to win a division title in his first season on a NFL coaching staff.
The winner of the AP Coach of the Year award was Panthers coach Ron Rivera. Not an unreasonable pick. It could be argued Rivera had more time and more talent to build such a good unit. Former Eagles coach Andy Reid was second. Friendly reminder that the Chiefs beat exactly one team with a winning record (the Eagles in Week 3 with Michael Vick starting) and won only two of their final games since November 3rd. Both of those wins came against teams picking in the top 5 of the 2014 NFL Draft. In third place was Bill Belichick. This one seems reasonable too considering the injuries the Patriots suffered. Then again, Belichick has had time to build a talented roster. I still maintain that Kelly's accomplishments are the most impressive when you consider how immediate his success was. It's worth noting that Kelly was already named Maxwell Football Club's Coach of the Year earlier in January.
Moving on, there were two Eagles players who won awards. The announcement of LeSean McCoy's award came earlier on Saturday afternoon. McCoy was named NFL FedEx Ground Player of the Year. The award is based on fan voting, but there's no doubt the fans made the right decision. McCoy was the best running back in the NFL during the 2013 season. McCoy was also up for the Offensive Player of the Year award but that was taken by Broncos QB and league MVP Peyton Manning. McCoy was the runner up in OPOY voting.
Nick Foles won the "Greatness on the Road" award, which I didn't really know existed. The award came for his astounding 7 touchdown performance against the Raiders. What a season it's been for Foles.
Offensive tackle Jason Peters finished as the runner up in Comeback Player of the Year voting. Peters had a very successful year despite coming off an Achilles injury that prevented him from playing in 2012. Peters was beat out by Chargers QB Philip Rivers.
Along the Honors Show, the Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees were announced. Former Eagles defensive end Claude Humphrey was inducted. Humphrey played briefly for the Eagles in 1979-81 but had a great career as a member of the Atlanta Falcons.
