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Comeback Player of the Year

Bears HB Giovanni Bernard

Ever since the 49ers let their former 1st rounder walk and installed Thomas Rawls as the starter, Bernard has been another one of those in-season injury replacements, getting 2-9 starts for the Rams, Broncos, and Chiefs before failing to land with a team in the regular season last year. When the Bears lost Dexter McCluster for the season during the preseason, Bernard was given the call and his first opportunity to start a full season since S13. He easily had the best season of his career has he posted career best marks with 1469 rushing yards on 4.5 YPC and 10 TDs as he looks to make Chicago his forever home.

Rams HB Jeremy Hill

One of the key pieces the Bears received in the WR Jordan Matthews/TE Burton trade with the Express, the former DeMarco Murray backup was a good HB for the Bears, posting over 1000 yards nearly every season while never falling below a 4.0 YPC and being a good receiver out of the backfield. The Bears thought that they could do better though and employed the future Hall-of-Famer Dexter McCluster. That left Hill as a backup with an expiring contract. Once he hit the open-market, the Rams allowed him to avoid the fate of being a journeyman injury replacement. Hill responded with the best season of his career with 1407 yards on 4.3 YPC and 14 total TDs as the Rams navigated a glut of offensive injuries en route to an 11-5 season and a playoff berth.

49ers HB Thomas Rawls

Rawls was limited to just three games last season, and the 49ers offense imploded. With a full, healthy season this year, the 49ers' offense rose all the way to 14th as Rawls set career highs in every major category with 1893 rushing yards on 4.7 YPC, 17 TDs, and 270 rec yards as he is expected to take home some awards.

Jets RT Anthony Collins

Collins had a great run with the Browns before surprisingly not being re-signed. He didn't latch onto a team for awhile, and when he became an RT replacement with the Cowboys, he had an ugly 49 blocks vs 9 sacks allowed. He was signed as a replacement with the Jets the following season and put up an even worse ratio of 51 blocks vs 10 sacks allowed. The Jets saw something in him though and re-signed him to a 3 year deal. He rewarded them with the best seasons of his career posting a league-high 85 blocks and allowed just five sacks as he helped lead the way for an injury riddled backfield to play way above their skill levels with multiple sub-80 HBs posting some absurd games.

Buccaneers LE Leonard Williams

The Buccaneers' suffered a huge blow to their rebuilding process last season as their offense and defense regressed to bad levels. Williams, a former sack leader and DL of the Year finalist, had an unbearably ugly line of 18 tackles and 3 sacks in 16 starts. With two top DE prospects available to them, nobody would have been surprised if they grabbed one of them to ultimately replace Williams after his contract expired, but they didn't and Williams rebounded with 31 tackles, 12 sacks, 1 FF, and 1 FR as the Bucs finished with the 5th-ranked defense in the league.