NFL Honors 2026 live updates: winners announced and Hall of Fame Class of 2026 revealed

The league’s annual awards show unfolded Thursday night, February 5, 2026, in San Francisco, handing out several of the season’s biggest honors and unveiling a five-member Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2026. As of 3:15 a.m. ET on Friday, February 6, multiple major awards have been confirmed publicly, while a few marquee categories were still not fully reflected in the most widely posted running recaps at the time of this update.

The biggest awards confirmed so far

A handful of headline trophies are already locked in, with winners recognized on stage during the show:

• Coach of the Year: Mike Vrabel, New England Patriots

• Comeback Player of the Year: Christian McCaffrey, San Francisco 49ers

• Defensive Player of the Year: Myles Garrett, Cleveland Browns

• Offensive Rookie of the Year: Tetairoa McMillan, Carolina Panthers

• Assistant Coach of the Year: Josh McDaniels, New England Patriots (offensive coordinator)

• Protector of the Year (inaugural): Joe Thuney, Chicago Bears (guard)

Those results also add immediate context to Super Bowl week storylines: Vrabel’s turnaround job and McDaniels’ play-calling are now part of the Patriots’ narrative heading into Sunday, while McCaffrey and Garrett left the night with hardware that reinforces just how dominant their seasons were.

Defensive hardware: Garrett’s record season earns top honor

Myles Garrett opened the night’s on-field awards by taking Defensive Player of the Year. The season-ending numbers did the selling: a relentless pass rush and a sack total that pushed into record territory, separating him from an already stacked finalist group. The win also cemented Cleveland’s defense as one of the year’s defining units—and it puts Garrett’s 2025 season in the conversation with the most disruptive edge-rusher peaks of the last two decades.

Rookie spotlight: Tetairoa McMillan caps a breakout year

Carolina wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan collected Offensive Rookie of the Year after a production-heavy first season that quickly made him the focal point of the Panthers’ passing game. In a year where several rookies across positions made strong cases, McMillan’s combination of volume, efficiency, and scoring impact carried him over the line and gave Carolina a clear cornerstone to build around.

Hall of Fame Class of 2026: five inductees announced

The Hall of Fame announcement delivered a compact five-person class, headlined by two first-ballot offensive icons and one of the most clutch specialists ever:

• Drew Brees

• Larry Fitzgerald

• Luke Kuechly

• Adam Vinatieri

• Roger Craig (senior selection)

It’s a group that spans eras and roles: Brees and Fitzgerald anchor the passing-game history of the 2000s and 2010s, Kuechly represents a short-but-brilliant defensive prime, Vinatieri embodies postseason kicking under maximum pressure, and Craig is rewarded for a versatile, ahead-of-his-time skill set.

What fans are still tracking right now

Even with a long list of confirmed winners, a few of the most searched-for categories were not consistently populated across the main running lists available at this timestamp:

• AP Most Valuable Player (MVP)

• AP Offensive Player of the Year

• AP Defensive Rookie of the Year

• Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year

• FedEx Air & Ground Players of the Year

• NFL Fan of the Year

If you’re following the show in real time (or catching up the morning after), those are the categories most likely to generate confusion as different recaps update at different speeds. The cleanest way to confirm each is to look for a single definitive winner post rather than partial “running list” pages that may lag behind the final segment order.

Sources consulted: The Associated Press, NFL.com, ESPN, Panthers.com