NHL teams don't necessarily need a goaltender that can drag them to the Stanley Cup, mostly because those types of netminders are unicorns. What they need is a goalie that can make a save at a critical time; and, perhaps most of all, not lose a game for the team in front of them.

As the NHL playoff picture comes into focus, so does the quality of every team's most important position. Will their goaltending be the foundation for a playoff berth and postseason run? Or is it the fatal flaw in their designs on the Stanley Cup?

The NHL Bubble Watch is our monthly check-in on the Stanley Cup playoff races using playoff probabilities and points projections from Stathletes for all 32 teams. This month, we're also giving each contending team a playoff quality goaltending rating based on the classic Consumer Reports review standards: Excellent, Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor.

We also reveal which teams shouldn't worry about any of this because they're lottery-bound already.

But first, a look at the projected playoff bracket:

Juventus have announced the signing of Paris Saint-Germain striker Randal Kolo Muani on a loan deal until the end of the season.

Sources had told ESPN that Muani had also drawn interest from Tottenham but preferred a move to the Serie A side.

The move gives Muani the opportunity to kickstart his career after an underwhelming 18-month spell at PSG. The striker signed for 95 million ($102.6m) from Eintracht Frankfurt last summer, but has managed just 11 goals in 54 appearances.

He had fallen out of favour with Luis Enrique this season and has made just two starts in all competitions.

The 26-year-old's arrival in Turin will bring more potency to a Juventus side, who have drawn 13 of their 21 leagues games this season.

Are we witnessing the end of Manchester City's incredible period of dominance, and have recent weeks exposed the first cracks in the winning empire built by Pep Guardiola? When the Champions League fixture list for the new 36-team league phase was released in September, nobody could have seriously predicted that Wednesday's clash with Paris Saint-Germain would be a make-or-break game for two of Europe's most powerful clubs. But that is exactly what it has become, with both sides in danger of not advancing to the knockout rounds.

For PSG, the club's decision to dispense with a policy of superstar signings (Kylian Mbappé left on a free transfer for Real Madrid in the summer) and focus on up-and-coming talent helps explain their unexpected slide in the Champions League, but Luis Enrique's team are still leaving domestic rivals trailing in their wake in France. Not only are PSG still on course for another Ligue 1 title, unbeaten in 18 games and leading second-place Marseille by 10 points, but they're alive in the French Cup and eyeing up another treble.

It is a different story at City. Having guided the team to an unprecedented fourth consecutive Premier League title last season, Guardiola has endured a series of career lows as manager this season. City are miles off the pace in the title race -- 12 points behind leaders Liverpool, having played a game more -- and ended 2024 with just one win in 13 games in all competitions. That run included five successive defeats and an overall sequence of nine losses in 13 games.

Despite three wins and two draws in their past five league games, Guardiola's squad are showing signs of age and decline. Right-back Kyle Walker, 34, wants to leave, while midfielder Ilkay Gündogan, also 34, has been a shadow of his former self since returning to the club from Barcelona last summer. Midfielder Kevin De Bruyne, 33, is out of contract this summer and has yet to discuss a new deal.

Star striker Erling Haaland's decision to sign a 10-year contract last week was an unexpected coup for City and a huge morale boost for all connected with the club, but there remains so much uncertainty around the Etihad.

Guardiola's future remains the subject of speculation despite signing his own contract extension in November, City have lost their magic touch in the transfer market, opponents have lost their fear of Guardiola's once-formidable team, and the club are seeing homegrown players (including Cole Palmer and Liam Delap) exceed expectations with their new teams after perhaps being offloaded too soon.

Every generation has a dominant team, but the empires built by Liverpool in the 1970s and 1980s and Sir Alex Ferguson's winning machine at Manchester United were both eventually brought down and overtaken by rivals. Is the same now happening to City?

Rather than wait for the benefit of hindsight, their peers' stories suggest that the warning signs of the end may already be showing.

With additional reporting by Beth Lindop

Liverpool: 'All the continuity left with Kenny Dalglish'

In September 1989, Liverpool recorded a 9-0 win against Crystal Palace at Anfield to go top of the old First Division. Having lost the league title on the final day of the previous season, it was an emphatic statement of intent that Liverpool, who had been crowned champions nine times since 1976, were back.

Liverpool would go on to win the 1989-90 title, but it would be their last for 30 years, and it was another game against Palace that season that warned of the decline to come.

In an FA Cup semifinal at Villa Park in April 1990, Liverpool had been expected to cruise to victory over their relegation-threatened opponents, but manager Kenny Dalglish's team were beaten 4-3 after extra-time in a huge shock. In February 1991, Dalglish stepped down and the club would win just two trophies -- the 1992 FA Cup and 1995 EFL Cup -- for the remainder of the decade.

There were other key exits that contributed to the downward spiral. When John Smith stepped down as Liverpool chairman in 1990, the club had amassed 11 league titles, four European Cups, two UEFA Cups, three FA Cups and four League Cups since his elevation to the role in 1973. He was an understated local businessman who set the tone for Liverpool's approach on and off the field. "We're a very, very modest club," Smith said. "We don't talk. We don't boast. But we're very professional."

In tandem with the club's chief executive, Peter Robinson, Smith successfully appointed three managers -- Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan and Dalglish -- in the space of 11 years and sanctioned a series of astute signings including Dalglish, Graeme Souness, Ian Rush, John Barnes and Peter Beardsley, all of whom became club legends and key figures in successful teams. Liverpool also mastered the art of moving big players, including goalkeeper Ray Clemence and team captain Souness, out of the club at the right time.

When Smith stepped down, the club soon started making mistakes with player signings and managerial appointments: Souness replaced Dalglish in 1991, leaving his role as manager of Glasgow Rangers as Liverpool abandoned Smith's approach of appointing managers from within the club.

"If you think about the continuity at Liverpool from Bill Shankly onwards, that all left with Kenny," former Liverpool defender Steve Nicol told ESPN.

Another key factor in the decline was a failure to refresh an ageing squad, having successfully done so during the 1970s and '80s. When Dalglish stepped down, Liverpool were still reliant on many players who had delivered their success in the '80s, including Bruce Grobbelaar, Nicol and Ian Rush, who had all played in the 1984 European Cup final against AS Roma. Grobbelaar, Glen Hysen and Beardsley were all in their 30s, and Nicol and Rush were 29. Captain Alan Hansen announced his retirement at the age of 35 a month after Dalglish's departure.

Dalglish's final two signings, David Speedie and Jimmy Carter, would play just 21 games for the Reds between them, setting the tone for an erratic recruitment policy that followed. Throughout the 1990s, Liverpool fell into the trap of signing inferior players, often for inflated fees. The subtle art of making astute moves was lost.

"When Kenny left and Graeme came in, there were a few of us who were past our best," Nicol said. "But even if that wasn't true, the place needed freshening up because a cloud was hanging over the club. Graeme had to make a lot of changes quickly.

"The majority of our team was made up of players who were Scottish, Welsh and Irish, so because of the UEFA rules [clubs were limited to three non-domestic players] Souness had to get rid of a lot of players and bring in English players. It wasn't like he had a choice of scouring Europe for the best players."

Liverpool's fall was swift. By the time the Premier League began in 1992, they had fallen behind Arsenal and Manchester United and were also eclipsed by big-spending newcomers such as Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United. It wasn't until Gerard Houllier's team won treble of League Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Cup in 2001 that Liverpool became a force again. But despite a Champions League win under Rafael Benitez in 2005, it took the appointment of Jurgen Klopp in 2015 to provide the catalyst for the club to finally return to the summit of the English game.

Manchester United: The damaging post-Ferguson years

Manchester United's 6-1 defeat against Manchester City at Old Trafford in October 2011 was the biggest loss, home or away, since Ferguson took charge in November 1986. United went into the game as reigning champions, having won a 12th Premier League title in 18 years, but City were an emerging force under Roberto Mancini and they humiliated United at Old Trafford with goals from Mario Balotelli (2), Edin Dzeko (2), Sergio Aguero and David Silva -- three of City's goals came after the 89th minute.

"It looked humiliating, but it was actually self-annihilation," Ferguson wrote in his 2013 autobiography. "After the final whistle, I informed the players they had disgraced themselves."

The margin of victory proved crucial, with City clinching the title on goal difference -- eight clear of United -- on the final day of the season and the 10-goal swing in City's favour from that derby proving decisive. "Of all the setbacks I endured, nothing compared to losing the league to City," Ferguson said.

Ferguson was able to wrestle the title back a year later in his final season -- though United haven't won the title since -- but the 6-1 defeat was when the rot set in. Never before had United endured such a humbling defeat under Ferguson.

His retirement in 2013 was the crucial departure, but David Gill's exit as CEO was just as significant. Gill had been the calm voice in the boardroom, the conduit between Ferguson and United's U.S. owners, the Glazer family, and his relationship with Ferguson was one of mutual trust.

"Of course, we have had a million arguments," Ferguson said about Gill in 2013. "But I always enjoyed them because I know that David has two great qualities: He is straight, and he always puts Manchester United first."

Gill was replaced by United's commercial director, Ed Woodward, who oversaw a period of lavish signings as the club tried to spend their way out of the slump -- Paul Pogba (89.3m), Romelu Lukaku (75m), Angel Di Maria (59.7m) -- and the appointment of four managers in five years including Champions League winners Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho -- before he left his role as executive vice chairman in January 2022.

Under Woodward, United spent more than 1 billion on new signings and over 40m in severance packages to fired managers David Moyes, Van Gaal, Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Erik ten Hag's dismissal last November cost United a further 10.4m in compensation to the former Ajax coach.

United's failure to refresh their squad dates back to the summer of 2009, when Cristiano Ronaldo sealed a then-world record 80m transfer to Real Madrid and the club chose not to turn Carlos Tevez's two-year loan deal into a permanent move, allowing the forward to move across town to Manchester City.

While City were embarking on their own incredible spending spree, funded by their new Abu Dhabi owners, the United manager said he wanted to find "value in the market." Ronaldo and Tevez were replaced by 18m Wigan winger Antonio Valencia and Newcastle striker Michael Owen, who arrived on a free transfer. That summer also saw United sign relatively unknown forwards Gabriel Obertan and Mame Biram Diouf.

United had tried planning for the long term by signing Phil Jones and Chris Smalling as successors to centre-back pairing Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic. Mexico forward Javier Hernandez was signed for 7m from Chivas in 2010, with 7.2m spent to sign Portuguese winger Bebé in the same summer. Meanwhile, Ronaldo would become a trophy-winning goal machine with Real Madrid, while Tevez became the poster-boy -- literally -- and catalyst for City's success on the other side of town.

However, by the time Ferguson retired, the squad had started to show signs of decline. Ryan Giggs (39) was still playing in midfield, while Paul Scholes (38) had been persuaded to come out of retirement by Ferguson in 2012 to solve a squad shortage. Ferdinand (34), Vidic (31), Patrice Evra (32) and Michael Carrick (31) were all aging mainstays of the squad Ferguson handed over to successor Moyes.

Compounding United's decline was the fact that Ferguson's judgement had also started to slip. After losing the title to City in 2012, Ferguson believed that his young players would deliver a bright future. "I felt I had a core of players who were sure to improve," he said. "In Rafael da Silva, Jones, Smalling, David de Gea, Tom Cleverley, Danny Welbeck, Hernandez, I had a nucleus that would be good for the long haul and a fit Anderson would be part of that group."

History would prove Ferguson badly wrong.

So what are we seeing at Man City this season?

First, the bad news for City: The pitfalls that befell Liverpool and United are already visible for Guardiola and his players. There have already been shock defeats, departures of key personnel, transfer mistakes, and maybe even some of the complacency that crucially obscured the warning signs at both Anfield and Old Trafford.

When was City's "6-1 moment?" This season has thrown up plenty of shock results, but last season's FA Cup final was key. Chasing a Premier League/FA Cup double a year after defeating United at Wembley in the second part of their Premier League/FA Cup/Champions League treble, Guardiola's side were beaten by their neighbours, who had just recorded their lowest-ever Premier League (8th).

Having been so dominant on the domestic scene, City's defeat against a much weaker opponent highlighted a frailty that others would then expose more regularly. Liverpool and United had lost games before, but both defeats were big-stage failures when they were supposed to be at their best, and the same applies to City losing against United at Wembley. It was Guardiola's first, and only, defeat in a domestic cup final as City manager.

"It was my decisions [that cost us]," Guardiola said afterwards. "It's my mistake: the gameplan was not good."

Off-the-pitch changes are also starting to have an impact at the Etihad; the question now is whether they prove to be as damaging? City have seen a number of senior figures leave the Etihad over the past 18 months, including chief operating officer Omar Berrada and academy director Jason Wilcox (who are now CEO and technical director respectively at United.) However, the biggest executive exit will be Txiki Begiristain, who has held the post of director of football since October 2012.

Begiristain, a former Barcelona teammate of Guardiola's before becoming director of football at Camp Nou in 2003, will step down at the end of this season to be replaced by Hugo Viana, who has been recruited from Portuguese champions Sporting CP. Begiristain's presence at City was crucial in the club's move to hire Guardiola as coach in 2016 and the two men have an incredibly close working and personal relationship, even more deep-rooted and closer than Ferguson's was with Gill.

The loss of Begiristain's experience, contacts and, most importantly of all, his bond with Guardiola, could be a major blow.

Until recently, City looked to have avoided the squad pitfalls that proved to be the undoing of Liverpool and United. But after two relatively quiet summers in the transfer market -- City announced a profit of 139m from player moves in their most recent accounts -- Guardiola's squad are now in need of an overhaul due to the age profile of several key players.

Walker (34), Gundogan (34) and De Bruyne (33) all need replacing, while Bernardo Silva, John Stones and Mateo Kovacic are all past their 30th birthday; Nathan Aké, Jack Grealish and Manuel Akanji are all 29. Despite the number of 30-somethings in his team, Guardiola has insisted that the age of his players is not an issue. "It depends on the performance," Guardiola said in November. "There are players who are 30 and more than 30 who perform incredibly well. There are players who are 23 who perform not good. I don't see the age. All teams have players with certain ages."

Having allowed Gundogan to leave for Barcelona as a free agent in 2023, City's decision to re-sign the midfielder last summer was a rare backward step for the club, but City have also sanctioned the departures of homegrown youngsters including Palmer (now at Chelsea), Morgan Rogers (Aston Villa) and Romeo Lavia (Chelsea). The club have been sleepwalking into a major squad overhaul, but with the Premier League's 115 charges for financial breaches hanging over the club and Begiristain due to leave this summer, they may have left it too late to address the issue decisively as other issues become clear.

Sources have told ESPN that 22-year-old James McAtee, a player regarded by Guardiola as a potential replacement for Bernardo Silva, could be the next to leave due to frustration over a lack of playing time; Newcastle, Bayer Leverkusen and RB Leipzig are all interested. Walker's surprise transfer request this month, and goalkeeper Éderson's frustration at losing his starting spot to Stefan Ortega, have added to a rare sense of discontent within the squad. Meanwhile, Guardiola's increasingly agitated persona in the technical area has also raised doubts as to whether he will see out his new deal.

However, there is some good news in the form of Haaland's new 10-year contract. For the club's biggest star to commit to such a long-term deal suggests there is optimism that this season is nothing more than a blip, and an unavoidable consequence of a team needing to be refreshed.

City have made signings to bolster Guardiola's squad in January, with deals for young defenders Abdukodir Khusanov (40m) and Vitor Reis (30m) set to be followed by the 55m signing of Eintracht forward Omar Marmoush. But are they the right moves or a repeat of the gambles -- and mistakes -- made by Liverpool and United? Time will tell whether they are City's Jimmy Carter and Gabriel Obertan, or the new Julián Álvarez and Rúben Dias. If they are to avoid experiencing the same fall as Liverpool and United, City need them to be the latter.

Six weeks ago, Mikaela Shiffrin didn't have the core strength to rise out of a chair. A sneeze or a laugh brought on instant pain.

That was all due to a serious crash in a giant slalom race Nov. 30 in Killington, Vermont, where something punctured her in the side -- still a mystery -- and caused severe trauma to her oblique muscles.

It has been a demanding and difficult road back for the fast-healing Shiffrin, who plans to make her World Cup return at a slalom race in Courchevel, France, next Thursday.

Her journey to the start gate included preventative surgery to ward off an infection inside a wound that penetrated through three layers of muscle to hours of arduous rehab to reactivate those crucial core muscles to feeling comfortable again weaving through a course.

That's why Shiffrin's focus is solely on progression, not so much her pursuit of World Cup win No. 100. Given where she was, just to make it back this quick from an injury that's not exactly common for a ski racer and resulted in her physical therapist consulting with baseball and hockey teams, it's already a big win.

"It's going to be a little bit nerve-racking, to be honest," Shiffrin told The Associated Press. "These past six weeks, every step it's like, 'Geez, should this be hurting less? Should I be better at this? Should I be more tolerant of the pain?' There are so many questions that come up in your mind of basically whether or not you're doing well enough.

"But when we take a step back and look where we are now ... it's pretty exciting."

Shiffrin has repeatedly watched the crash. She's analyzed precisely what happened in a race where she was leading and looked headed toward milestone win No. 100.

Long story short: She put too much weight on her inside ski on an aggressive line.

"I was like, 'I'll be hanging on for dear life, but it's going to be fast,'" said the 29-year-old Shiffrin, whose plans for the world championships in Austria next month include racing the slalom and giant slalom.

Shiffrin hit the snow, smashed into the gate, toppled over her skis and slid into the protective fence. She suffered no serious bone or ligament damage, but something impaled her.

She's scrutinized over what the object might have been, with theories ranging from her ski pole to a piece of the gate. Fans have even reached out to offer their thoughts.

Only later did she find out just how close of call it was: whatever stabbed her nearly punctured her abdominal wall and colon.

"A millimeter from pretty catastrophic," Shiffrin said. "Then it was like, 'Your colon is intact. This is just a hole in your side. That's fine.' I'm like, 'But there's still a hole in my side and I can't move.'"

This was such a unique injury to ski racing. Her physical therapist, Regan Dewhirst, reached out to the training staffs of the Los Angeles Angels and Edmonton Oilers for advice, since baseball and hockey players have had their share of oblique ailments. Each helped provide a framework for Shiffrin's recovery.

"The biggest thing was to make sure you get her moving in a pain-free way as quickly as possible," Dewhirst said. "Get the muscle activated properly, and then once it's activating, you need to try to introduce these sport-specific motions as soon as you can."

They took the necessary steps at Shiffrin's pace. If she felt good, they were aggressive. If she needed to rest, they rested. She was looking at a 6- to 12-week timeline for a return, but no one knew for sure.

"Every step of the way, it's gone as well as we could hope," said Shiffrin, who is engaged to Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, the Norwegian ski star sidelined this season with an injury. "We've been pushing too."

Shiffrin returned to skiing Jan. 1. A few simple runs to "get at those ski-specific motions you really can't simulate in a controlled gym space," Dewhirst said.

Two weeks later, Shiffrin was back in the slalom gates. Again, some very easy turns to start.

"Just slowly taking on the progression and not throwing in too much into the fire at once," said Shiffrin, a two-time Olympic champion who has a "new" teammate on the U.S. ski team after the comeback of Lindsey Vonn. "It's kind of hard to explain to people just how much you put your body through just to make one single slalom or GS turn, let alone 55 to 60 in a row."

Earlier this week, she had a little hiccup that sent her heart racing. She hit a pile of snow in a training run, one ski slid into the other, and she nearly fell.

It was reminiscent of her crash.

"That was scary," Shiffrin said. "But I was also like, 'There it is.' I have to desensitize to those little things again because you don't ski a full-length race course without some little moments of like, 'That was kind of scary.'"

Shiffrin departs for Europe this week, and the plan is to increase the intensity ahead of the Courchevel competition.

But that plan remains fluid.

"If for whatever reason something crops up and it's not quite there yet, no big deal," Dewhirst said. "This is an evolving continuum."

Shiffrin won't be racing any downhill events this season but is leaving the door open for an occasional super-G.

"It depends on how much we can fit into a really short time crunch," Shiffrin said. "For me, it's just been put your head down and do the work and just do this as well as you can."

When Madison Keys finally finished off her 5-7, 6-1, 7-6 (8) upset of No. 2 Iga Swiatek in a high-intensity, high-quality Australian Open semifinal Thursday night, saving a match point along the way, the 29-year-old American crouched on the court and placed a hand on her white hat.

She had a hard time believing it all. The comeback. What Keys called an "extra dramatic finish." The victory over five-time Grand Slam champion Swiatek, who had been on the most dominant run at Melbourne Park in a dozen years. And now the chance to play in a Grand Slam final for a second time, eight years after being the US Open runner-up.

"I'm still trying to catch up to everything that's happening," said the 19th-seeded Keys, who will face No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka on Saturday for the trophy. "I felt like I was just fighting to stay in it. ... It was so up and down and so many big points."

Just to be sure, Keys asked whether Swiatek was, indeed, one point from victory. She was, serving at 6-5, 40-30, before missing a backhand into the net then getting broken by double-faulting to send the contest to a first-to-10, win-by-two tiebreaker.

"I felt like I blacked out there at some point," Keys said, "and was out there running around."

Whatever she was doing, it worked in the end. Keys claimed more games in the semifinal than the 14 total that Swiatek dropped in her five previous matches over the past two weeks.

Sabalenka beat good friend Paula Badosa 6-4, 6-2 earlier Thursday. Sabalenka, a 26-year-old from Belarus, won the Australian Open the past two years and can become the first woman since 1999 to complete a three-peat.

"If she plays like this," the 11th-seeded Badosa said about Sabalenka, "I mean, we can already give her the trophy."

The last woman to reach three finals in a row at the year's first Grand Slam tournament was Serena Williams, who won two from 2015 to 2017. Martina Hingis was the most recent woman with a three-peat, doing it from 1997 to 1999.

Swiatek had not lost a service game since the first round but was broken three times by Keys in the first set alone and eight times in all.

That included each of Swiatek's first two times serving, making clear from the get-go this would not be her usual sort of day. While Swiatek did eke out the opening set, she was overwhelmed in the second, trailing 5-0 before getting a game.

This was the big-hitting Keys at her best. She turns 30 next month, and at the suggestion of her coach Bjorn Fratangelo, who's a former player as well as her husband, she decided to try a new racket this season, an effort both to help her with generating easy power but also to relieve some strain on her right shoulder.

It's certainly paid immediate dividends. Keys is on an 11-match winning streak, including taking the title at a tuneup event in Adelaide.

She was good enough to get through this one, which was as tight as can be down the stretch.

"At the end, I feel like we were both kind of battling some nerves. ... It just became who can get that final point and who can be a little bit better than the other one," Keys said. "And I'm happy it was me."

Keys' victory made her the first woman to come from a set down to win an Australian Open semifinal since Venus Williams in 2017; Williams defeated CoCo Vandeweghe before losing to her sister Serena in the final.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Josh Allen, Saquon Barkley, Joe Burrow, Jared Goff and Lamar Jackson are finalists for The Associated Press 2024 NFL Most Valuable Player award.

Barkley, Burrow and Jackson also are finalists for Offensive Player of the Year and Burrow is also in the running for Comeback Player of the Year.

The winners will be announced at NFL Honors on Feb. 6. A nationwide panel of 50 media members who regularly cover the league completed voting before the playoffs began.

Here are the finalists, in alphabetical order, for the eight AP NFL awards:

Most Valuable Player: Allen helped the Bills win their fifth straight AFC East title. He threw for 3,731 yards, 28 TDs and had six picks for a 101.4 passer rating. Allen ran for 531 yards and 12 scores.

Barkley ran for 2,005 yards (the eighth-best total in NFL history). He sat out Philadelphia's final regular-season game when he needed 101 yards to break Eric Dickerson's single-season record. Barkley helped the Eagles win the NFC East and advance to the conference championship game.

Burrow led the NFL with a career-high 4,918 yards passing and 43 TDs, but the Cincinnati Bengals finished 9-8 and missed the playoffs.

Goff threw for 4,629 yards, 37 TDs and nine interceptions and led Detroit to the No. 1 seed in the NFC. The Lions were eliminated in the divisional round by Washington.

Jackson, the reigning winner, is seeking his third MVP award after leading the Ravens to an AFC North title. Jackson had career highs with 4,172 yards passing, 41 TDs (to just four interceptions) and a 119.6 passer rating, which led the NFL. He was a first-team All-Pro for the third time and also ran for 915 yards and four TDs. The Ravens were knocked out of the divisional round by Allen and the Buffalo Bills.

Offensive Player of the Year: Barkley, Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase, Derrick Henry and Jackson are finalists for the award.

Chase won the receiving triple crown, leading the league with 127 receptions, 1,708 yards and 17 TDs. The Bengals star wide receiver was a unanimous selection for All-Pro.

Henry, the 2020 Offensive Player of the Year, had 1,921 yards rushing and 16 TDs in his first season with the Ravens.

Defensive Player of the Year: Eagles linebacker Zack Baun went from mostly playing special teams for the Saints to earning All-Pro honors in his first season in Philadelphia.

All-Pro edge rusher Myles Garrett, the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, had 14 sacks for the Cleveland Browns.

Bengals All-Pro edge rusher Trey Hendrickson led the NFL with 17 sacks.

Broncos All-Pro cornerback Patrick Surtain II allowed just 37 receptions and had four picks, and opposing quarterbacks had a 61.1 passer rating throwing against him

Steelers edge rusher T.J. Watt, the 2021 winner, had 11 sacks and forced six fumbles.

Offensive Rookie of the Year: Raiders tight end Brock Bowers set a rookie record with 112 receptions, and his 1,194 yards receiving were the most by a first-year player at his position.

Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels led his team to an eight-win improvement and has it one win away from a Super Bowl appearance. He threw for 3,568 yards and 25 TDs and posted a 100.1 rating. Daniels also ran for 891 yards and six scores.

Giants receiver Malik Nabers had 109 catches for 1,204 yards and seven TDs.

Broncos QB Bo Nix helped the team reach the playoffs for the first time in nine years. He had 3,775 yards passing, 29 TDs and 12 picks and ran for 430 yards and four scores.

Jaguars receiver Brian Thomas Jr. caught 87 passes for 1,282 yards and 10 TDs.

Defensive Rookie of the Year: Eagles cornerback Cooper DeJean was among the highest-rated players in the slot, holding opponents to 50 receptions. He had five pass breakups, and quarterbacks had an 82.2 passer rating against him.

Rams defensive tackle Braden Fiske led the team and all rookies with 8 sacks. He had 51 pressures, two forced fumbles and recoveries, 10 tackles for loss and 10 quarterback hits.

Eagles cornerback Quinyon Mitchell allowed 40 receptions and had nine pass breakups, and quarterbacks had an 87 passer rating against him.

Dolphins edge Chop Robinson had six sacks, 20 pressures and eight tackles for loss.

Rams edge Jared Verse had 4 sacks but led all rookies in quarterback hits (18), pressures (77) and hurries (56). He also had 11 tackles for loss.

Coach of the Year: Detroit's Dan Campbell, Minnesota's Kevin O'Connell, Denver's Sean Payton, Washington's Dan Quinn and Kansas City's Andy Reid are the finalists.

Campbell guided the Lions (15-3) to the NFC's No. 1 seed. Connell led the Vikings (14-4) to the playoffs despite losing Kirk Cousins in free agency and rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy to a season-ending knee injury in training camp.

Payton helped the Broncos (10-8) overcome salary-cap woes stemming from the decision to release Russell Wilson and ended a nine-year playoff drought.

Quinn took over a 4-13 team and turned the Commanders into a 12-win playoff team.

Reid had the Chiefs (16-2) back atop the AFC as the No. 1 seed in a quest for a third straight Super Bowl victory.

Assistant Coach of the Year: Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady, Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, Vikings DC Brian Flores, Lions DC Aaron Glenn and Lions OC Ben Johnson made the list.

Comeback Player of the Year: Burrow, Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold, Chargers running back J.K. Dobbins, Patriots cornerback Christian Gonzalez and Bills safety Damar Hamlin are the finalists.