Does the NFL Honors voting process need to be changed after Puka Nacua snub?

Puka Nacua, Cooper Kupp have been snubbed from earning top awards in recent years

It wasn’t much of a shock at all to see L.A. Rams star Puka Nacua lose out on the AP Offensive Rookie of the Year award Thursday night. Nacua received only two measly votes from voters which only reinforced the idea that no one cares about a player’s contributions if they don’t play quarterback.

What more could Nacua have done? Suit up at quarterback instead and maybe then he would get his due.

I want to make it clear that C.J. Stroud was deserving of the award. My goal is not to take anything away from his contributions as he played out of his mind in Houston, leading the Texans to a remarkable turnaround.

Still, it’s hard not to feel bitter about the NFL Honors. Voters have placed QBs on such a pedestal that they’ve become so narrow-minded when it comes to evaluating all other positions. I’m not simply talking about OROY here.

Cooper Kupp earned a single MVP vote in 2021 after becoming the fourth player in the Super Bowl era to win the triple crown of receiving. That’s right, one frickin’ vote after nearly setting league marks in receiving yards and receptions. Instead, the MVP award went to Aaron Rodgers who received 39 votes while Tom Brady got 10.

Kupp would eventually get the last laugh after winning MVP honors for his heroics in Super Bowl LVI. Either way, if historic campaigns by non-QBs aren’t rewarded, then what is the point of celebrating the best the NFL has to offer in the first place? Watching Kupp dominate that postseason as Rodgers choked away another Packers season in the Divisional Round felt like poetic justice though.

So what can be done to help fix the voting process? For one, voters need to be educated on how position players help make QBs valuable and vice versa. Football is a team sport for a reason. Signal callers can’t do everything and must have a quality support system in place to have success as TST’s own Blaine Grisak pointed out:

Second, there should be a rookie MVP and OROY just like there’s an MVP and OPOY as the X, formerly Twitter user below suggested. I believe that’s a fair proposition for the NFL to consider. Except, would the same have to be done on the defensive side or does this only make sense on offense?

It’s a quarterback’s world and perhaps we as fans have to accept it. Regardless, the current voting process feels unfair and here are some Puka Nacua highlights to help make the QB bias go down a little easier: