Jayden Daniels won the 2024 AP NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year, and Will Anderson Jr. won the 2023 AP NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year, but the official 2025 NFL Rookie of the Year awards have not been formally announced yet as of early February 2026.

Quick Scoop: Who won NFL ROTY?

When people say “ROTY” in the NFL context, they usually mean the AP NFL Rookie of the Year honors (Offensive and Defensive), which are the league’s official awards. Here’s where things stand:

  • The 2025 NFL Honors ceremony (where AP Rookie of the Year awards are handed out) is right around now, so there is no fully confirmed AP winner list yet in public box-score style sources.
  • Betting and preview sites list Carolina Panthers WR Tetairoa McMillan as the clear favorite for Offensive Rookie of the Year and Browns LB Carson Schwesinger as the heavy favorite for Defensive Rookie of the Year.
  • Historically, these favorites often, but not always, end up taking home the hardware, so any claim that they’ve already “won” would still be speculative until after NFL Honors concludes.

In forum-style threads and social chatter, you’ll see people talk as if McMillan and Schwesinger already “have it in the bag,” but that’s based on odds and voters’ sentiment, not an official announcement yet.

Recent confirmed ROTY history

These are the most recent clearly confirmed AP Rookie of the Year winners (offense/defense):

  • 2024: Jayden Daniels (Offensive ROTY), Jared Verse (Defensive ROTY)
  • 2023: C.J. Stroud (Offensive ROTY), Will Anderson Jr. (Defensive ROTY)
  • 2022: Garrett Wilson (Offensive ROTY), Sauce Gardner (Defensive ROTY)
[3] [3] [3] [3] [3] [3]
Season Offensive ROTY (AP) Defensive ROTY (AP)
2024 Jayden DanielsJared Verse
2023 C.J. StroudWill Anderson Jr.
2022 Garrett WilsonSauce Gardner

Why it’s still a “trending topic”

Because we’re sitting just before/around NFL Honors 2026 on the calendar, “who won ROTY NFL” is trending as fans argue:

  1. Whether McMillan’s receiving numbers justify him over any QB or RB candidates.
  1. Whether a linebacker like Schwesinger can edge out pass rushers in DROY voting, despite edge players often getting more sacks and headline stats.
  1. How much preseason odds and hype really predict the final vote, since recent years have seen several underdogs (like Garrett Wilson or Jared Verse) upset the favorites.

TL;DR

  • Confirmed: Daniels, Verse, Stroud, Anderson Jr., Wilson, and Gardner are the latest locked-in ROTY names from 2022–2024.
  • Not yet fully official: 2025 AP NFL Rookie of the Year winners; McMillan (offense) and Schwesinger (defense) are just strong favorites, not confirmed winners as of now.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.