Bijan Robinson's breakout season has culminated in multiple offseason award nominations, and he's just getting started. The 23-year-old broke the Falcons' single-season scrimmage yards record with 2,298 in 2025, and the most in the NFL.
On Wednesday, he was nominated as a finalist for the AP NFL Honors Offensive Player of the Year award. If Robinson won this honor, he'd be the first Falcon since Matt Ryan won MVP and OPOY in 2016. He'd also be just the second Falcon ever to win OPOY.
Robinson is alongside Drake Maye, Christian McCaffrey, Puka Nacua, and Jaxon Smith-Njigba as finalists. Also on Wednesday, JSN won this honor presented by the Pro Football Writers of America via an internal voting system.
While JSN enjoyed a phenomenal season, Robinson deserves the AP version of this award. During his third season in Atlanta, Robinson rushed for 1,478 yards and garnered 820 receiving yards. He gained the second-most receiving yards from any running back in the NFL by a long shot.
Bijan Robinson deserves serious recognition after insane 2025 season in Atlanta
Robinson is an elite running back, but also lines up on the outside to run routes. His insane 2025 season is unmatched in Falcons' history and deserves to be recognized.
Out of the other finalists for the award, McCaffrey is the most similar. The two produced nearly identical seasons, with McCaffrey just scoring a few more touchdowns.
I believe Robinson has the slight edge over McCaffrey in this award because he failed to produce the highlight reel, jaw-dropping plays that Robinson produced seemingly weekly.
The two receiver finalists, JSN and Nacua, both garnered over 1,700 yards. Last season, Saquan Barkely bested Lamar Jackson and Ja'Marr Chase for the award, during a season in which Chase had 1,708 receiving yards.
A similar situation occurred in 2023 when McCaffrey won the award over Tyreek Hill and CeeDee Lamb, both of whom recorded over 1,748 receiving yards.
Maye, the other finalist, produced an elite second season in New England. The only problem: A quarterback hasn't won this award since 2018. After a stretch of eight out of twelve OPOY awards won by quarterbacks from 2007-2018, the award has been split between receivers and running backs.
To be honest, why the OPOY is typically different from the MVP is beyond me. You'd think that whoever the quarterback is who wins the MVP would also be the OPOY, but apparently, it doesn't happen anymore. This is why the OPOY is such a prestigious award, it's the true MVP, an award Robinson whole heartedly deserves.