Tyler Shough wins fan-voted NFL Rookie of the Year as AP honors loom

Tyler Shough has already claimed one of the week’s headline rookie prizes, winning the 2025 Pepsi Zero Sugar NFL Rookie of the Year—a fan-voted award announced during Super Bowl LX week. The bigger question for Thursday night, February 5, 2026 (ET), is whether that momentum carries into the Associated Press Offensive Rookie of the Year vote at the league’s annual awards show, where Shough is one of five finalists.

The moment matters because “NFL rookie of the year” can mean different things depending on the award: a fan vote, a media vote, or separate offensive and defensive honors. Shough now sits at the center of that confusion—already crowned by fans, still waiting on the media verdict.

What “NFL Rookie of the Year” means right now

This week’s most-circulated headline is the fan-voted honor sponsored by Pepsi Zero Sugar. It’s a single “Rookie of the Year” award chosen by fans, and Shough won it after a season in which he became the New Orleans Saints’ primary rookie quarterback storyline.

Separately, the Associated Press hands out two rookie awards each season:

• Offensive Rookie of the Year (OROY)

• Defensive Rookie of the Year (DROY)

Those AP awards are voted on by a national media panel before the playoffs, and they are generally treated as the league’s most “official” rookie awards.

Why Tyler Shough is the center of the 2026 rookie conversation

Shough’s fan-vote win was powered by both production and narrative: he stepped into a high-pressure role at quarterback, delivered multiple efficiency spikes late in the year, and set Saints rookie passing marks in key categories.

His rookie line that keeps coming up in recaps:

• 67.6% completion rate (best among rookie quarterbacks)

• 2,384 passing yards (second among rookies)

• 91.3 passer rating (second among rookies)

• 10 passing touchdowns (a Saints rookie record)

One game in particular has been repeatedly cited as the “signature” résumé item: a late-season performance with 333 passing yards, 81.5% completions, and a 142.7 passer rating, a combination achieved by very few rookies in league history.

Key dates and what happens next

Here’s how the week has unfolded and what comes next (ET):

The AP Offensive Rookie of the Year finalists

Shough is competing in a crowded field that reflects how many rookie skill players popped this season. The AP OROY finalists are:

• Tyler Shough, QB, New Orleans Saints

• Jaxson Dart, QB, New York Giants

• TreVeyon Henderson, RB, New England Patriots

• Tetairoa McMillan, WR, Carolina Panthers

• Emeka Egbuka, WR, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The dynamics are classic: quarterbacks often benefit from positional value and visibility, while elite production from a running back or receiver can win if the numbers (and highlights) are overwhelming.

Why fans picked Shough—and why the AP vote could differ

A fan vote and a media vote don’t always reward the same thing.

Fan voting tends to amplify:

• quarterback visibility

• late-season surges

• viral moments and signature games

• market size and national attention

AP voting often weighs:

• full-season impact and consistency

• value relative to position

• how a rookie changed an offense or defense week to week

• competition strength within the rookie class

So Shough’s fan-vote win is a strong signal of popularity and narrative force—but it doesn’t guarantee the AP result. The AP field includes high-usage skill players whose weekly production can be easier to compare directly.

What to watch after tonight

Two outcomes will shape the rookie storyline going into the offseason:

1. If Shough wins AP OROY: he becomes the clear headline rookie of the season, with both a fan-vote crown and the top media-voted offensive honor.

2. If someone else wins AP OROY: Shough still leaves Super Bowl week with a major national award, while the rookie legacy gets split between “fan favorite” and “media-voted best.”

Either way, Shough’s arrival changes the Saints’ short-term outlook: the league has already placed him in the top tier of the rookie class, and the offseason conversation now shifts from “nice story” to “what’s the Year 2 leap?”

Sources consulted: NFL.com, Associated Press, Pro Football Hall of Fame, New Orleans Saints official site