The 2015-16 NFL regular season has officially come to a close, which means it’s time to make our end of the year awards predictions.

By Jeff Jarboe

Last year, the NFL awards were pretty much decided by the time Week 17 rolled around–Aaron Rodgers had the MVP locked up, J.J. Watt was without question the Defensive Player of the Year, DeMarco Murray was pretty much guaranteed to win Offensive Player of the Year after winning the rushing title, and Odell Beckham Jr. was destined to win Offensive Rookie of the Year.

This year, however, there are still a few league awards that remain up in the air. The MVP is most likely going to go to the quarterback who led his team to the best record (he wears the number one and likes to dance). But, awards like Offensive Rookie of the Year (Gurley? Winston?), Comeback Player of the Year (Berry? Bowman? Palmer?) and Defensive Player of the Year (Watt? Jones? Mack?) are still up for debate.

And what about Coach of the Year and Executive of the Year? Head coaches Bruce Arians and Ron Rivera both had outstanding years in the competitive NFC. Thus, both are deserving of consideration. While New York Jets GM Mike Maccagnan and Washington GM Scot McCloughan are deserving of an EOTY for their respective roster overhauls.

But let’s start with an easy one–the league MVP. No other player in the league was more valuable to his team in 2015 than this man:

MVP: QB Cam Newton, CAR

Season Stats: 3,837 yds, 35 tds, 10 ints, 636 yds (rush), 10 tds (rush), 4.8 ypc

There were a lot of Carolina Panthers players who emerged in 2015 and who are deserving of some of the credit for their teams magical 14-1 season. Josh Norman for example, was a no-name player last season and has become one of the best lockdown corners in the NFL. And while Norman and the rest of the Panthers defense certainly deserve credit, no individual player on Carolina’s roster deserves more praise for the team’s season than Cam Newton.

Newton has always been one to dance and celebrate his accomplishments, but this season was different. He carried himself with a different type of swagger in 2015. Perhaps, it was the improved offensive line, or perhaps he was inspired by head coach Ron Rivera. But one thing was clear in 2015, Newton was sick of losing.

His 2015 campaign should be placed in the dictionary next to the phrase “putting the team on your back” as he accounted for 45 total touchdowns this season–35 passing and 10 rushing–still with nobody to throw to! Kelvin Benjamin was out for the year before the season began, which meant Cam had to lean on Greg Olsen and Tedd Ginn Jr. (a.k.a. the King of Drops) in the passing game.

Still, Newton got the job done. He lead his team to a 14-1 record, a first-round bye in the playoffs and home field advantage throughout. This isn’t the same Cam Newton who would run backwards in an attempt to evade a defender only to get sacked 15 yards in the backfield, nor is it the Cam Newton who would get cocky and fire footballs into tight windows that resulted in picks.

What we’re seeing now is a whole new Cam Newton. He reads the defense, makes adjustments, makes the right decisions, and does whatever he has to in order for his team to win the game. That’s why his team won 14 games this season and that’s why he’s the unquestioned MVP of the league.

Runner Up: QB Carson Palmer, ARI

Offensive POY: QB Carson Palmer, ARI

Season Stats: 4,671 yds, 35 tds, 11 ints, 63.7 cmp%, 104.6 rat

If Palmer doesn’t get MVP, then he’s most likely going to be honored as the league’s Offensive Player of the Year. The 36-year-old quarterback enjoyed the best statistical season of his 12-year career in 2015, as he lead Arizona to a 13-3 record and an NFC West title.

Though, there are other players who put up more impressive offensive numbers like Julio Jones and Antonio Brown–both of whom finished the season with an NFL-record 136 catches–perhaps no player in the NFL did it as consistently as Palmer.

With the exception of last night’s debacle against Seattle, Palmer has finished every game this season with a completion percentage of at least 60.0% and a rating of at least 80 (he had 11 games with a rating over 100).

Palmer’s performance this season was similar to Newton’s in that something just clicked. It remains unclear what clicked in Cam’s head to turn him into an MVP candidate, but for Palmer it was probably Bruce Arian’s downfield passing attack and his roster full of receiving threats that did the job.

The veteran quarterback simply looked more comfortable, poised, and accurate this past season than any of his other 11 seasons in this league.

Runner Up: WR Antonio Brown, PITT

Defensive POY: DT Aaron Donald, STL

Season Stats: 69 tkl, 11 sck, 1 pd, 1 fr

To the average football fan, Aaron Donald‘s 2015 stats don’t seem deserving of a DPOY nod. People want to see a lot of sacks and a lot of turnovers, and Donald didn’t have many of either. But as an interior defensive lineman, no defensive player did his job better in 2015 than Aaron Donald.

According to Pro Football Focus, Donald finished with a +104.0 season grade. Not only does it lead all interior defensive linemen, but is the highest all-time grade in PFF’s history. He was the best interior defensive lineman against both the run and the pass this season, with a run-stop percentage of 10.9 percent (5th best in the NFL).

It’s in these advanced statistics where one can see how productive Donald has been as a pass rusher, despite his low sack numbers.

In his final game of the season yesterday, Donald didn’t record one sack. However, Pro Football Focus gave the second-year defensive tackle a +15.4 grade on the day and called his performance one of the most dominant performances in the PFF era.

Why? Because Donald was in the backfield on nearly every snap. He generated pressure, which was felt by opposing quarterbacks all game. At the end of the day, that was his job.

According to PFF, Donald had four QB hits, four hurries and a batted pass on a screen play, which was intercepted and returned to the 49ers’ two-yard line. The Rams were trailing at the time and San Fran was driving with under two minutes to go before halftime.

The point is, Donald has been more productive than any interior defensive lineman in the league this year, people just don’t know it.

With star edge rusher Robert Quinn sidelined for the entire second half of the season and linebacker Alec Ogeltree also injured, Donald was drawing double teams on nearly every snap.

He may not have put up crazy sack numbers, but the amount of pressure Donald generated on a week-to-week basis was astounding considering the attention he was already drawing from opposing offensive lines.

J.J. Watt may still win this award because of his sack numbers and his reputation, but don’t forget the name Aaron Donald.

Runner Up: DE J.J. Watt, HOU

Offensive ROY: RB Todd Gurley, STL

Season Stats: 1,106 yds, 10 tds, 4.8 ypc, 21 rec, 188 yds

If Donald doesn’t get the DPOY award, then Gurley better get the Offensive Rookie of the Year award. This guy is a freak and showed it in his first year in the NFL.

After tearing his ACL and subsequently falling and rising on draft boards, Gurley was drafted by St. Louis with the 13th pick this past May with the hopes that he could be their offensive playmaker for the future.

Keyword: future.

Not Jeff Fisher or anyone else in the Rams organization or in the football world thought that Gurley was going to be back to 100 hundred percent and ready to contribute the way he did in 2015. His rehab was going to take time and even after his knee was healed, he needed time to adjust to the NFL.

Right? Wrong.

Gurley rehabbed, and was ready to play by Week 3. After only receiving six carries in that game, Gurley was ready for a full workload in Week 4 at Arizona (the same Arizona team that finished the year 13-3 with the sixth ranked rush defense). He ran for 146 yards on 19 carries.

Gurley followed his Week 4 breakout performance with a 159-yard showing at Green Bay in Week 5. He finally reached the end zone in Week 6, twice, as he ran past the Browns defense for 128 yards. Week 7 he rushed for 133 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries.

The 100-yard streak ended in Week 7. Gurley came down to earth a bit in the second half of the season, as teams began to figure out that he was the lone threat in St. Louis’ young offense. But, he was still remained productive.

He finished the season with over 1,000 yards rushing and 10 touchdowns–something that nobody expected him to do in his rookie year, let alone in 13 games and coming off of a torn ACL.

There were a lot of talented offensive rookies in the NFL this season, but no player accomplished what Todd Gurley was able to accomplish with the odds completely stacked against him.

Runner Up: QB Jameis Winston, TB

Defensive ROY: CB Marcus Peters, KC

Season Stats: 60 tkl, 26 pd, 8 ints, 2 tds, 1 ff

There aren’t many other defensive rookies in the NFL who are worthy of being mentioned in the same sentence as Marcus Peters for the Defensive Rookie of the Year award.

That’s because in his first year, despite being targeted more than any other defensive back in the league, Peters has already established himself as a playmaker in the KC secondary. The former Washington Husky finished his rookie campaign with a league-leading 26 passes defensed and eight interceptions, two of which he returned for touchdowns.

As Pro Football Focus notes, Peters’ play vastly improved in the second half of the season as Kansas City made its run for an AFC Wild Card spot. Before the Chiefs’ Week 9 bye, Peters was being targeted roughly nine times per game and was allowing an average of 5.4 receptions and 72.1 yards. Afterwards, he was still being targeted roughly nine times per game, but was only allowing an average of 3.6 receptions for 49.4 yards.

It’s also noteworthy that five of Peters’ eight interceptions came after the Week 9 Bye.

Peters’ play in the second half of the season, as his team was in the thick of the playoff race, says a lot about his abilities and his development moving forward. He’s a gamer and he showed that in his rookie season.

Runner Up: DT Leonard Williams, NYJ

Comeback POY: S Eric Berry, KC

Season Stats: 61 tkls, 10 pd, 2 ints

Another category in which there were several players who were deserving–Rob Gronkowski had another great year after suffering numerous injuries at the end of last season, Larry Fitzgerald enjoyed a resurgent year after having one of the worst statistical years of his career in 2014, and his quarterback also could have been considered for this award after the season he had this year, coming back from a torn ACL–but no player had a comeback quite like Eric Berry.

A three-time pro bowler, Berry spent his offseason enduring chemotherapy treatments as he battled Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. He was diagnosed with the disease on Dec. 9 after he felt a pain in his chest in a game against the Oakland Raiders.

Berry began his chemotherapy and radiation treatments shortly after and finished in May. He was declared cancer-free on June 22, and somehow after all of the chemo he had endured, he showed up to Chiefs camp one pound heavier than before.

This guy would literally take time out of his day–in between chemotherapy and radiation treatments–to eat and workout even though his body was rejecting everything he put inside it.

Berry said in an ESPN article this past summer, “There would be times when I would work out and I would end up just crying after the workout. First of all, I couldn’t believe that I made it through the workout but I couldn’t believe it was that hard.”

Berry beat the cancer and suited up Week 1. He played in every game that followed except this past week, and was voted into the Pro Bowl for the fourth time. He is without a doubt, the comeback player of the year.

Runner Up: QB Carson Palmer, ARI

Coach of the Year: Bruce Arians, ARI

Season: 13-3 1st in NFC West, 1st Total Offense, 5th Total Defense

Ron Rivera did a phenomenal job in 2015–the defense was even more dominant than last year and the offense stepped up when they had to, whether it was through Cam’s arm or Jonathan Stewart‘s legs–but Bruce Arians deserves the Coach of the Year award and here’s why:

For starters, the NFC West is a much tougher division than the NFC South is (for now at least). Arizona had to play Seattle and St. Louis twice, both of which have some of the most talented defenses in the league (though both defenses did suffer dips in production in 2015).

Carolina on the other hand, had the benefit of playing New Orleans, Atlanta and Tampa Bay each twice, all of which have some of the worst defenses in the league.

Before the season, CBS Sports ranked all 32 teams according to strength of schedule by combining the 2014 records of all 16 teams that each team was set to play. There are many shortcomings that come with measuring a team’s strength of schedule, one of which is that NFL teams change vastly from year to year. So, it’s unfair to assume a team is going to be as bad/good as they were the year before. With that being said, this is where Arizona and Carolina ended up in the rankings:

5. Arizona Cardinals: 142-113-1, .557

27. Carolina Panthers: 111-145, .434

According to CBS Sports, Arizona had the fifth toughest schedule heading into the 2015 season, while Carolina had the 27th toughest schedule, or the sixth easiest schedule in the league.

Arizona finished first in total offense and fifth in total defense, while Carolina finished 11th in total offense and sixth in total defense.

Carolina may have finished with the league’s best record (14-1), but they did so in one of the league’s least competitive divisions. Ron Rivera did a great job in 2015 and he’s deserving of this award, just not as deserving as Bruce Arians.

Runner Up: Ron Rivera, CAR

Executive of the Year: GM Mike Maccagnan, NYJ

Notable Moves: Traded for B. Marshall, R. Fitzpatrick; Signed D. Revis, B. Skrine, M. Gilchrist, J. Carpenter; Drafted L. Williams, L. Mauldin, B. Petty

Another heartbreaking year for the New York Jets. They dropped their final game of the season to former coach Rex Ryan, their five-game winning streak snapped, and were eliminated from playoff contention.

Playoffs aside though, 2015 was a very successful year for the New York Jets considering where they stood at this point last year (last in AFC East, 4-12) and it’s due in large part to the work of General Manager Mike Maccagnan.

Maccagnan signed on to be the Jets new GM just about a year ago and began what was presumed to be a long road to recovery within the Jets organization–rebuilding the roster.

With no quarterback, and no depth at receiver, running back or any position in the secondary, Maccagnan took the teams nearly $60 million in cap space and sixth overall draft pick and turned the Jets into a legitimate playoff contender for years to come.

He traded a fifth round pick for Brandon Marshall (109 rec, 1,502 yds, 14 tds in 2015) and a conditional sixth round pick for Ryan Fitzpatrick (3,905 yds, 31 tds, 15 ints in 2015). He brought back Darrelle Revis and added depth throughout the secondary with the signings of Antonio Cromartie, Buster Skrine and Marcus Gilchrist.

He added even more depth and youth through the draft with the selections of Leonard Williams, Devin Smith, Lorenzo Mauldin and Bryce Petty.

In his first year ever as a general manager, Mike Maccagnan successfully rebuilt the New York Jets roster and gave Todd Bowles the foundation that he can now work with to build a winning organization.

4-12 to 10-6. Not a bad first year as GM.

Runner Up: GM Scot McCloughan, WAS

Next: Rankings This Year’s 12 Playoff Quarterbacks