Washington Football Team quarterback Alex Smith brought home the 2020 Comeback Player of the Year Award for the NFL, which is surprising to no one after his journey back.
The NFL awards for the 2020 season were given out on Saturday and the Washington Football Team had a pretty good night in that category. Defensive end Chase Young won Defensive Rookie of the Year to no one’s surprise. Meanwhile, in an even less shocking decision, quarterback Alex Smith was named the Comeback Player of the Year.
Alex Smith winning this award was a no-brainer to everyone (well to almost everyone as he took 49 of the 50 votes). The quarterback’s story is one for the history books. By now everyone knows the dramatic tale but, just in-case you don’t, let’s fill you in really quick.
Back in 2018, Smith was traded to Washington. He started the season strong and had them in first place through the first nine games with a 6-3 record. However, in the 10th game, Smith suffered a gruesome injury. On Nov. 18 (exactly 33 years ago to the date of the Joe Theismann injury), Smith broke his leg horrifically, bone through the skin and all.
Smith missed the rest of the year and all of 2019. In that time he had 17 surgeries. That included an infection that had him mere hours away from having to have his leg amputated. There was a time where people feared he might not survive.
Then, in 2020, Smith was cleared to play. And the celebration video had people worried. He was shown celebrating with his kids and he did not look like someone that should be cleared to play. There was a clear limp, it looked like he had just broken the leg not long ago.
However, there wasn’t much fear. I mean, he’d never see the field, right? Dwayne Haskins and Kyle Allen were on the depth chart ahead of him.
Even if Smith never touched the field in 2020, he was the Comeback Player of the Year. The fact that he was even putting the uniform on was more than enough — he was cleared to play and worked exceptionally hard for it and that right there won him the award.
That’s not what happened though. After four games, Haskins was benched. Allen was named the starter and Smith his backup. But in his first game as a starter, Allen suffered an arm injury. This put Smith into a game for the first time in almost 700 days. The numbers weren’t great (9-for-17 for 37 yards), but he was back on the field — incredible.
Allen was good to go the next week though, so Smith was back on the bench. And Allen played pretty well over the next two games, not great but fine. On Nov. 8, (almost two years to the date of Smith’s injury) Allen also had a nasty leg injury. Not nearly as severe but enough to make it pretty clear that he would not be returning, not only for the game but for the rest of the season.
So in came Smith and he ended up being the starter for almost the rest of the year (a calf injury kept him out for a few weeks with Haskins taking over before he was released).
Smith was solid too. He wasn’t great (only six touchdowns compared to eight interceptions in eight games), but the offense was moving much better when Smith was in. More importantly, Washington was winning games. With Smith as a starter, the team went 5-2, which included winning his final five games in that role.
Smith helped push the Washington Football Team into the playoffs as NFC East Champions (with a 7-9 record but still in the playoffs). An injury led to him missing the playoff game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In his absence, Taylor Heinicke filled in brilliantly. He became the talk of Washington for a few weeks.
However, it was Alex Smith that helped Washington come back and win the NFC East. And it is Alex Smith that deserved the award. Don’t get me wrong, other players overcame adversity, bad seasons, injuries, and all that fun stuff. But there was no one else that could’ve won the award for 2020. The man is a living legend, now name the damn award after him.