The 2026 NFL season is about to get underway, with every team dreaming of getting their hands on the Lombardi Trophy come mid-February. But by then, there will be other pieces of hardware to hand out, too, and The Worldwide Leader is looking into its crystal ball to forecast which players will be adding some individual awards to their mantels.
ESPN asked league executives and scouts from around the league to make their end-of-year predictions, naming their picks for Most Valuable Player, Offensive and Defensive Players of the Year, and Comeback Player of the Year, among other accolades.
And while ESPN's Jeremy Fowler admits there's no clear consensus for any of the honors, the poll did identify two Cowboys who figure to be right in the thick of it in their
respective categories as the season winds down five months from now.
Defensive Rookie of the Year: Caleb Downs
This category could be fun to watch this season, with first-year talents like Tampa Bay's Rueben Bain Jr., Kansas City's Mansoor Delane and R Mason Thomas, and the Jets' David Bailey also looking to make an impact with their new teams. Each of them also got votes in this category in ESPN's poll.
But Downs "instantly becomes one of Dallas' most versatile players," writes Fowler, with the safety expected to play- and perform at a very high level- both in the slot and along the outside in coordinator Christian Parker's revamped secondary. "He will play in the middle of the defense, so he will probably have some ball production and high tackle numbers," an AFC executive said. "And if he helps turn around Dallas' defense, he'll be looked at as a catalyst."
Stats will be key to Downs actually being a frontrunner for this award. As Fowler points out, "the last defensive back to win DROY was Sauce Gardner in 2022, when he recorded two interceptions and 20 pass deflections." Downs needs to do more than just hold his own; he needs to dominate and wreck opponents' gameplans.
Coach of the Year: Brian Schottenheimer
In another wide-open race, Schottenheimer gets the edge in his second season, beating out the likes of Sean McVay, Jim Harbaugh, Dan Campbell, Jesse Minter, and Kellen Moore.
Fowler acknowledges that Schottenheimer is "a bit of a wild card" but suggests that he has "most of what he needs to win" this year in Dallas. "I think Dak [Prescott] will have a big year; we know they can score; and the defense should be much improved," an NFC scout said. "If they stay healthy, they have a good chance to win the NFC East."
But would even that be enough? The urgency for the Cowboys to throw off the albatross of that 30-year NFC title drought has been at alarm-bell status for a while now. This may be the most talented roster the team has fielded in a long time; a Super Bowl win would catapult Schottenheimer into the upper echelon of NFL coaches.
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This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: NFL execs predict 2 Cowboys to take home end-of-year awards
