Who will be named 2022 NFL Comeback Player of the Year?

The NFL can be a very unforgiving environment at times. Players are always just one bad tackle or landing from retirement. The careers of some of the greatest prospects can be derailed, with the player returning to the NFL diminished. The majority of players suffer at least one gruesome injury during their careers, but they always try their best to return to the league.

The NFL Comeback Player of the Year award is awarded to players who missed significant time in a campaign, only to return in earnest. The award is about overcoming adversity and is not always about returning from injury. Sometimes a player is benched and has to break out and prove himself.

Joe Burrow of the Cincinnati Bengals won the award for the 2021 NFL season. The Bengals quarterback tore his ACL in a tackle in his rookie year during the 2020 campaign. There were concerns he would be the same player upon his return. These concerns proved unfounded. Burrow threw for 4,611 yards and 34 touchdowns in the 2021 NFL season. His performances led the Bengals to the Super Bowl, where they fell to the Los Angeles Rams.

Here are my top three candidates to take home Comeback Player of the Year honors in the upcoming season:

#1. Christian McCaffrey, Carolina Panthers

Carolina Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey

Call me an eternal optimist, but I will or have drafted Christian McCaffrey anywhere from the second pick of my NFL fantasy drafts onwards. Mainly because he has been a historically great statistical performer and a really fun player to watch when healthy. McCaffrey has been limited to just ten games over the last two years by shoulder, thigh, hamstring and ankle injuries. This is obviously assuming that he can finally stay healthy in 2022.

Looking at the pieces around him, unless you count like the last one-and-a-half years of banged-up Cam Newton, Baker Mayfield may be the best quarterback McCaffrey has played with. You may not be a fan of Ben McAdoo as a head coach, but looking at how the New York Giants have fallen apart since his departure and considering how quick-paced his offenses are, the scheme could create more space for the back. Especially with a talented group of receivers around him.

Most importantly, I don’t believe people acknowledge how much better the Carolina Panthers O-line could be. I expect them to improve at three spots, with sixth overall pick Ikem Ekwonu and a couple of solid veterans. When he last played a full season (2019), McCaffrey led the league with 2,400 scrimmage yards and 19 TDs.

#2. Allen Robinson, Los Angeles Rams

Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Allen Robinson

A different comeback story may be written for Allen Robinson in the City of Angels. This guy has basically been in quarterback purgatory ever since he came to Penn State. Blake Bortles probably remains the best guy he’s caught passes from ever since then, before kind of shutting it down since December last year. Robinson was still able to produce despite that.

If you take out his first and most recent year in the pros respectively (along with 2017, when he was lost for the year after just one catch), he has averaged 1,087 yards and 7.4 touchdowns per season. Whether he was used on the perimeter as a vertical, ball-winning receiver or running option routes from the slot, Robinson can and has done pretty much everything.

He now gets to play under Sean McVay and the Los Angeles Rams. In the upcoming NFL campaign, he has Matthew Stafford throwing him the ball. Stafford has only failed to go over 4,000 passing yards once since 2011 (when he was limited to just eight games). Looking at how they used Odell Beckham Jr. as their X receiver last season, particularly as a designated red-zone target near the goal-line, but also to some degree Robert Woods, I could easily see him go for 1,200 yards and double-digit touchdowns.

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#3. Saquon Barkley, New York Giants

New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley

Finally, the optimist in me also had to put up Saquon Barkley here. He headlined my list last season and barely made an impact at all, due to constantly being banged up yet again. So once more, I’m working under the assumption that he won’t land badly, twisting his ankle or knee, which has caused him to miss more games than he's played across the past two seasons.

I believe because he has tried to tough it out and hasn’t looked like himself, people think he’s washed. I refuse to not look at him as an elite draft prospect and talent in the running back position. His combination of burst, lower body strength, natural receiving skills and his break-away speed made him the NFL’s leader in scrimmage yards as a rookie back in 2018.

The following season I’d argue the Giants had the worst O-line in the league and then of course the injuries started to hit. Considering Big Blue now have two tackles from top-ten picks and added a couple of above-average starting veterans on the interior, that unit has seen an immense upgrade.

Then you have Brian Daboll and Mike Kafka opening up what has been a very underwhelming offensive structure. Combine this with the more dynamic receiving talent around him and Saquon Barkley will remind people of the player he is in this NFL season.

If you enjoyed this breakdown, please make sure to check out the original piece, where I also predict all the other awards and the playoff picture, leading up to Super Bowl LVII.