The Cincinnati Bengals' Joe Burrow and Ja'Marr Chase took home awards during Thursday night's "NFL Honors" - the National Football League's awards show to recognize the best players, performances and plays from this past season.
Awards announced at YouTube Theater in the SoFi Entertainment District included AP Most Valuable Player, AP Coach of the Year, AP Comeback Player of the Year and AP Offensive Rookie of the Year.
Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow was named AP Comeback Player of the Year. Burrow is the second Cincinnati player to win the award, which quarterback Jon Kitna won in 2003. Washington quarterback Alex Smith won the award last year.
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Last month, Burrow was named the PFW/PFWA Comeback Player of the Year for 2021.
Burrow played in 10 games as a rookie before a season-ending knee injury. During the 2021 regular season, he completed a league-best 70.4 percent of his passes for 4,611 yards and 34 touchdowns.
Bengals rookie receiver Ja'Marr Chase earned AP Offensive Rookie of the Year honors. Receiver Carl Pickens won the award with Cincinnati in 1992. Receiver Eddie Brown won it in 1985. Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert won the award last year.
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Last month, Chase was named 2021 Offensive Rookie of the Year by the Professional Football Writers of America. Last week, Chase was named 2021 Pepsi Zero Sugar NFL Rookie of the Year.
Earlier this week, former Bengals receiver Cris Collinsworth - who will call Sunday's Rams-Bengals Super Bowl for NBC along with former Cincinnati Reds radio play-by-play broadcaster Al Michaels - said Chase already is the best receiver he's seen in a Cincinnati uniform.
Chase broke Chad Ochocinco's Bengals' single-season receiving yardage record of 1,440 (set in 2007) and finished with 1,455 in his first NFL season, and his 266 receiving yards against the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 17 were the most in a game by a rookie in NFL history.
Zac Taylor finished fourth in AP Coach of the Year voting. Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel won the award. Taylor would have been the first Bengals' head coach since Marvin Lewis in 2009 to win the award. Paul Brown won it in 1970. The Browns' Kevin Stefanski won it last year. The Rams' Sean McVay won in 2017, with Taylor on his coaching staff.
Last month, the Pro Football Writers of America also named Vrabel its NFL Coach of the Year.
The Bengals are playing in the Super Bowl after finishing 2-14 in 2019 - Taylor's first year as head coach.
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