San Francisco running back Christian McCaffrey, who led the NFL in receiving yards by a running back and had the second-most yards from scrimmage in the league in 2025 after missing 13 games of 2024 with several injuries, is the 2025 NFL Comeback Player of the Year chosen in voting by the Professional Football Writers of America (PFWA).<\/p>\n
New England quarterback Drake Maye, who helped lead the Patriots to 14 victories and paced the NFL in several passing categories, is the 2025 NFL Most Improved Player of the Year.<\/p>\n
McCaffrey missed the entire 2024 preseason with both calf and Achilles injuries, and he was deactivated prior to the season opener. The 49ers placed him on injured reserve, and he missed the next seven games. He returned to the active roster for Week 10, and he played in four games before a knee injury in Week 13 forced him back to injured reserve for the remainder of the season. This season, McCaffrey returned to form as he started all 17 games and rushed 311 times for 1,202 yards and 10 touchdowns. He also led the NFL in running back receiving yards as he caught a team-leading 102 passes for 924 yards and seven TDs. His 2,126 yards from scrimmage was second in the NFL, and he also led the league in total first downs gained with 119. He posted four 100-yard rushing games, and he scored either a rushing or receiving touchdown in 12 games as he is the first player in NFL history to register at least five rushing touchdowns and five or more receiving TDs in a season. McCaffrey was the NFC Offensive Player of the Week for Week 7, and he was selected to both the PFWA’s All-NFL and All-NFC teams.<\/p>\n
McCaffrey is the third 49ers Comeback Player of the Year honoree, joining Bryant Young (1999) and Garrison Hearst (2001) since the award was instituted in 1992.<\/p>\n
Maye started 12 of 13 games played in 2024 as the Patriots struggled to a 4-13 record. This season, he started all 17 games and led the NFL in completion percentage (72.0), yards per attempt (8.9) and passer rating (113.5) as New England went 13-4 to tie for the league’s best record and gain the AFC’s No. 2 seed. He completed 354 of 492 pass attempts for 4,394 yards, 31 touchdowns and only eight interceptions. He also rushed 103 times for 450 yards and four TDs. Maye is the eighth quarterback in NFL history to finish a season with a 70 percent completion percentage, at least 4,000 passing yards and at least 30 touchdown passes. He posted a franchise-record 13 games with a passer rating of 100 or more\u2013 including a stretch of eight consecutive games. He set a Patriots record by throwing TDs to five different receivers at the N.Y. Jets in Week 17 in a game when he became the first QB to have 250 or more passing yards, five passing TDs and a 90 percent completion percentage. He was the AFC Offensive Player of the Week for Week 13, and he was selected to the PFWA’s All-AFC team.<\/p>\n
Maye is the first New England player to receive the Most Improved Player of the Year honor since it was first awarded by the PFWA in 2000.<\/p>\n
2025 COMEBACK PLAYER OF THE YEAR: RB Christian McCaffrey, San Francisco 49ers<\/p>\n
2025 MOST IMPROVED PLAYER OF THE YEAR: QB Drake Maye, New England Patriots<\/p>\n
PFWA COMEBACK PLAYER OF THE YEAR: 1992 \u2013 QB Randall Cunningham, Philadelphia Eagles; 1993 \u2013 RB Marcus Allen, Kansas City Chiefs; 1994 \u2013 QB Dan Marino, Miami Dolphins; 1995 \u2013 QB Jim Harbaugh, Indianapolis Colts; 1996 \u2013 RB Jerome Bettis, Pittsburgh Steelers; 1997 \u2013 WR Robert Brooks, Green Bay Packers; 1998 \u2013 QB Doug Flutie, Buffalo Bills; 1999 \u2013 DT Bryant Young, San Francisco 49ers; 2000 \u2013 DE Joe Johnson, New Orleans Saints; 2001 \u2013 RB Garrison Hearst, San Francisco 49ers; 2002 \u2013 QB Tommy Maddox, Pittsburgh Steelers; 2003 \u2013 QB Jon Kitna, Cincinnati Bengals; 2004 \u2013 RB Willis McGahee, Buffalo Bills; 2005 \u2013 WR Steve Smith, Carolina Panthers; 2006 \u2013 QB Chad Pennington, New York Jets; 2007 \u2013 WR Randy Moss, New England Patriots; 2008 \u2013 QB Chad Pennington, Miami Dolphins; 2009 \u2013 QB Tom Brady, New England Patriots; 2010 \u2013 QB Michael Vick, Philadelphia Eagles; 2011 \u2013 QB Matthew Stafford, Detroit Lions; 2012 \u2013 RB Adrian Peterson, Minnesota Vikings; 2013 \u2013 QB Philip Rivers, San Diego Chargers; 2014 \u2013 TE Rob Gronkowski, New England Patriots; 2015 \u2013 S Eric Berry, Kansas City Chiefs; 2016 \u2013 WR Jordy Nelson, Green Bay Packers; 2017 \u2013 WR Keenan Allen, Los Angeles Chargers; 2018 \u2013 QB Andrew Luck, Indianapolis Colts; 2019 \u2013 QB Ryan Tannehill, Tennessee Titans; 2020 \u2013 QB Alex Smith, Washington Football Team; 2021 \u2013 QB Joe Burrow, Cincinnati Bengals; 2022 \u2013 QB Geno Smith, Seattle Seahawks; 2023 \u2013 S Damar Hamlin, Buffalo Bills; 2024 \u2013 QB Joe Burrow, Cincinnati Bengals; 2025 \u2013 RB Christian McCaffrey.<\/p>\n
PFWA MOST IMPROVED PLAYER OF THE YEAR: 2000 \u2013 QB Jeff Garcia, San Francisco 49ers; 2001 \u2013 QB Kordell Stewart, Pittsburgh Steelers; 2002 \u2013 QB Chad Pennington, New York Jets; 2003 \u2013 QB Jon Kitna, Cincinnati Bengals; 2004 \u2013 QB Drew Brees, San Diego Chargers; 2005 \u2013 DE Osi Umenyiora, New York Giants; 2006 \u2013 RB Frank Gore, San Francisco 49ers; 2007 \u2013 QB Derek Anderson, Cleveland Browns; 2008 \u2013 RB DeAngelo Williams, Carolina Panthers; 2009 \u2013 WR Miles Austin, Dallas Cowboys; 2010 \u2013 RB Arian Foster, Houston Texans; 2011 \u2013 WR Victor Cruz, New York Giants; 2012 \u2013 WR Dez Bryant, Dallas Cowboys; 2013 \u2013 WR Alshon Jeffery, Chicago Bears; 2014 \u2013 RB Le’Veon Bell, Pittsburgh Steelers; 2015 \u2013 (tie) QB Kirk Cousins, Washington Redskins and CB Josh Norman, Carolina Panthers; 2016 \u2013 LB Vic Beasley, Atlanta Falcons; 2017 \u2013 QB Jared Goff, Los Angeles Rams; 2018 \u2013 TE George Kittle, San Francisco 49ers; 2019 \u2013 QB Ryan Tannehill, Tennessee Titans; 2020 \u2013 QB Josh Allen, Buffalo Bills; 2021 \u2013 (tie) CB Trevon Diggs, Dallas Cowboys and RB Cordarrelle Patterson, Atlanta Falcons; 2022 \u2013 QB Geno Smith, Seattle Seahawks; 2023 \u2013 QB Baker Mayfield, Tampa Bay Buccaneers; 2024 \u2013 QB Sam Darnold, Minnesota Vikings; 2025 \u2013 QB Drake Maye, New England Patriots.<\/p>\n
ABOUT THE PFWA: In its 62nd season in 2025, the Professional Football Writers of America (PFWA) is the official voice of pro football writers, promoting and fighting for access to NFL personnel to best serve the public. The PFWA is made up of accredited writers who cover the NFL and the 32 teams daily. Nicki Jhabvala of The Athletic is the PFWA president for the 2025-26 seasons and the organization’s 32nd president. Mike Jones (The Athletic) is the PFWA’s first vice president, Stephen Holder(ESPN.com) is the second vice president, Lindsay Jones (The Ringer) is the advisor to the president and Mike Sando (The Athletic) is the secretary-treasurer. At-large board members include Jeff Legwold(ESPN.com), Joe Reedy (Associated Press), Calvin Watkins (Dallas Morning News) and Charean Williams (ProFootballTalk.com). Bob Glauber serves as the Membership Liaison, and Chris Pika is the Director of Communications. Follow the PFWA at ProFootballWriters.org and on Twitter\/X at @PFWAwriters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Francisco running back Christian McCaffrey, who led the NFL in receiving yards by a running back and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":699472,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[833,7,1263,1264,1167,249,2326,2094,6,208,1679],"class_list":{"0":"post-699471","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-drake-maye","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-hp-article","11":"tag-hp-featured","12":"tag-new-england","13":"tag-new-england-patriots","14":"tag-newengland","15":"tag-newenglandpatriots","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-patriots","18":"tag-press-releases"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115945754108558087","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=699471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}