The NFL Comeback Player of the Year award has long been one of the more confusing accolades in the league. Most awards feature some kind of debate, whether it is between two worthy players or based in how each individual voter interprets the honor. However, the NFL has decided to make things more specific with the Comeback Player of the Year award.

The NFL has adopted new guidelines around the award.

“The spirit of the AP Comeback Player of the Year award is to honor a player who has 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. The decision to provide this guidance was made last December but could not be implemented for the 2023 awards because the season was almost completed,” the guidelines read, per AP senior NFL writer Rob Maaddi.

The league hopes that introducing these guidelines will create some uniformity among AP voters.

The last few winners of the award were split on why they earned it. For example, Joe Flacco (2023), Geno Smith (2022), and Ryan Tannehill (2019) were all given the award for having a good year after struggling the year before. Meanwhile, Joe Burrow (2021) and Alex Smith (2020) both earned the award after coming back from serious leg injuries.

The NFL now wants the award to mostly go towards players like Burrow and Smith.

This should resonate with fans who were upset that Flacco won the award in 2023. Flacco came off the couch and led the Browns to the playoffs. He won the award over Damar Hamlin, who fits the bill for the new league guidelines around the award. Hamlin was able to comeback and play for the Bills after his traumatic cardiac arrest event.

Mike Florio responds to NFL's new guidelines around Comeback Player of the Year award

Mike Florio joined Dan Patrick on the Dan Patrick Show to talk about some new guidelines that the NFL has introduced related to the award.

“This has been lingering for a while and it actually started when Geno Smith won it Dan in the 2022 season,” Florio said. “Coming back from sucking, and that goes back to Ryan Tannehill frankly in 2019 after his time with the Dolphins and he wasn't very good. He gets traded, he replaces Marcus Mariota, he plays well he's the Comeback Player of the Year. There's never been any guidance for the voters on what Comeback Player of the Year means. So, they've been trying to make it more clear that you're coming back from something that caused you to miss time the prior season. Now, it's still not hard and fast rule, it's going to be determined on a case-by-case basis.”

The new guidelines should provide some more consistency on who wins the award. However, it gives votes some flexibility to vote for a variety of players.

Florio used Aaron Rodgers as an example of how the new guidelines are intended to function. Florio presents a scenario where Rodgers returned to the Jets in 2023 and led them to the playoffs. In that case, Rodgers would not be eligible for Comeback Player of the Year. The reason is because the award should speak to injury in the year prior, not the current season.

It will be interesting to see how these guidelines affect who wins the award in 2024.