Ja'Marr Chase, Joe Burrow Earn National Awards At NFL Honors

Burrow wins Comeback Player of the Year, Chase named Offensive Rookie of the Year for 2021 season
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The NFL Honors ceremony is one of the final events of every season and Thursday evening, Joe Burrow and Ja'Marr Chase took home two of the most prestigious awards of the night. 

Burrow earned Comeback Player of the Year, coming off that devastating knee injury he suffered as a rookie while his counterpart Chase took home NFL's Offensive Rookie of the Year.

The second year quarterback Burrow is enjoying a borderline MVP caliber season for the Cincinnati Bengals, leading this team to the Super Bowl for the first time in over 30 years. In 16 regular season games, Burrow completed 70.4% of his passes while throwing for 4,611 yards, 34 touchdowns and 14 interceptions en route to a bounce back season for the Bengals. 

As for Chase, he set a new rookie record for receiving yards with 1,455 on 81 catches for the season, to go along with 13 touchdowns. The numbers for both players have also been pretty impressive in the playoffs with Burrow completing 69% of his passes for 842 yards and four touchdowns while Chase has caught 20 passes for 279 yards and a touchdown. 

Throughout the entire run this season, both players have been praised by Louisiana as they embark on their first Super Bowl this weekend. In meeting with media members ahead of his first Super Bowl appearance, Burrow was asked what LSU and the state of Louisiana mean to him and his career. 

"LSU means everything to me. They gave me this opportunity to put myself in this position to be talking to everybody today," Burrow said. "I wouldn't have had that opportunity if I hadn't gone down there and work really hard for what I got.

"The fans really embraced me as one of their own and I tried to do the best I could when I was there representing LSU and Louisiana in a very good way. I think the fans really appreciate when somebody from the outside really embraces their culture."

With another career game for both players just around the corner, fans of LSU and Cincinnati on all corners of the country will surely be rooting for the former Tigers to capture a Super Bowl ring.  


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Glen West
GLEN WEST

Glen West has been a beat reporter covering LSU football, basketball and baseball since 2017. West has written for the Daily Reveille, Rivals and the Advocate as a stringer covering prep sports as well. He's easy to pick out from a crowd as well, standing 6-foot-10 with a killer jump shot.