It’s officially awards season for the Kansas City Chiefs.
The Chiefs have officially announced the annual Derrick Thomas MVP and Mack Lee Hill Rookie of the Year awards. The MVP is named after Chiefs legend Derrick Thomas, who tragically passed away in 2000. The Mack Lee Hill Award honors a rookie or first-year player. It is named after former Chiefs RB Mack Lee Hill, who died during knee surgery in 1965. Following the conclusion of the season, Chiefs players submit their votes to name one player the Derrick Thomas MVP winner and another the Mack Lee Hill Award winner. The team also included the Ed Block Courage Award winner for Kansas City, which is awarded to a player as voted on by their teammates as a role model of inspiration, sportsmanship, and courage. It’s named in memory of Baltimore Colts athletic trainer Ed Block.
So, who came away with the awards this year? Let’s dive in.
Patrick Mahomes voted as 2025 Derrick Thomas MVP winner
Joe Thuney was the team’s Derrick Thomas MVP in 2024, marking the first player besides Mahomes to win the award since 2021 (Tyrann Mathieu). Now, Mahomes is taking back the award after a tough 6-11 campaign that made it painfully apparent just how valuable No. 15 is to this team. Mahomes completed 315-of-502 passing attempts for 3,587 yards, 22 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions, along with a career-high 422 rushing yards on 64 attempts with five rushing touchdowns. This was all before suffering a season-ending knee injury. This marks his fourth Derrick Thomas MVP award, after winning his first in 2018 and back-to-back awards in 2022 and 2023.
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Ashton Gillotte voted as 2025 Mack Lee Hill Rookie of the Year winner
This one might come as a surprise, given that some other rookies or first-year players had a greater impact on the field. Gillotte, however, earned the respect of his defensive teammates by appearing in all 17 regular-season games, including two starts, for Kansas City. The third-round draft pick out of Louisville recorded 38 total tackles, three tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, an interception, and one pass defended. Chiefs DC Steve Spagnuolo was really encouraged by what he was seeing from Gillotte by the end of the season and excited about his trajectory for the future.
“I thought Ashton (Gillotte) has been and hopefully will continue to be on a trajectory that’s going upward,” Spags said. “It would’ve been nice to maybe get more reps in early (but) we were rotating guys, but I think he’s getting plenty towards the end here, and I think that will help him going forward.”
Gillotte is the first defensive player to win the Mack Lee Hill Award since 2021, when Nick Bolton earned the award.
George Karlaftis awarded Ed Block Courage Award
As mentioned earlier, this award is named after former Baltimore Colts athletic trainer Ed Block. Active players on each NFL team vote for a teammate who exemplifies commitment to the principles of sportsmanship and courage. Karlaftis is the first defensive player in Kansas City to earn the award since Dee Ford in 2018. Players like Joe Thuney, Patrick Mahomes, and Isiah Pacheco have been bestowed the award in recent seasons. In March, Karlaftis will receive his Ed Block Courage Award at a banquet held in Baltimore.
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This story was originally published by A to Z Sports on Jan 24, 2026, where it first appeared in the NFL section. Add A to Z Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.