So, who gets the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year award?

The biggest driver on football cards these days is the Rookie Card and now that the regular season is over most of those big-name newcomers are done for the year.

So, naturally, that makes us wonder who get the Rookie of the Year nod? We’ll focus on offense since it matters the most when it comes to cards. (On defense Buzz thinks it will probably go to Kansas City’s Marcus Peters, who tied for the NFL lead with eight interceptions and two TDs.)

But on offense it’s not as easy.

At quarterback, there are really only two options — Tampa Bay’s Jameis Winston and Tennessee’s Marcus Mariota. Both had their moments but Mariota missed time due to injury. Winston’s got the yardage and the TDs, but the rating isn’t exactly amazing. Tack on six rushing TDs and he’s the top QB.

	Comp.	Att.	Pct.	Yards	Avg,	YPG	TDs	Int.	Sack	Rating
Jameis Winston	312	535	58.3	4,042	7.6	252.6	22	15	27	84.2
Marcus Mariota	230	370	62.2	2,818	7.6	234.8	19	10	38	91.5

At running back, there wasn’t a lot of consistency but there’s one guy who dominated at the beginning of the season — the St. Louis Rams’ Todd Gurley. He’s the only rookie to run for 1,000 yards — and there were only six others who topped the mark for all players. Gurley finished third-overall in yardage and his rushing TD mark tied for fifth in the league. Although he fell off the map pretty hard later in the season, he’s still the top-rushing rookie RB and an overall ROY contender. (For fun, we’ve included the QBs’ stats here.)

	Att.	Att./G	Yards	Avg.	YPG	TDs	Long	Fum.
Todd Gurley	229	17.6	1,106	4.8	85.1	10	71T	3
Thomas Rawls	147	11.3	830	5.6	63.8	4	69T	1
T.J. Yeldon	182	15.2	740	4.1	61.7	2	45	0
Melvin Gordon	184	13.1	641	3.5	45.8	0	27	5
Ameer Abdullah	143	8.9	597	4.2	37.3	2	36	4
David Johnson	125	7.8	581	4.6	36.3	8	47T	2
Jeremy Langford	148	9.2	537	3.6	33.6	6	23	0
Karlos Williams	93	8.5	517	5.6	47	7	41T	1
Javorius Allen	137	8.6	514	3.8	32.1	1	44	2
Matt Jones	144	11.1	490	3.4	37.7	3	39T	4
Tevin Coleman	87	7.2	392	4.5	32.7	1	46	3
Duke Johnson	104	6.5	379	3.6	23.7	0	39	0
Marcus Mariota	34	2.8	252	7.4	21	2	87T	2
Jameis Winston	54	3.4	213	3.9	13.3	6	21	3

For receivers, there’s really only one option for the season as a whole, and that’s the Oakland Raiders’ Amari Cooper. The former Alabama star wasn’t as strong later in the year but still managed to be the only 1,000-yard receiver and he tied the late-season standout, Seattle’s Tyler Lockett, for the receiving-TD lead for rookies.

	Rec.	Yards	Avg.	YPG	Long	TDs	20+	40+	1st	Fum.
Amari Cooper	72	1,070	14.9	66.9	68T	6	16	6	45	1
Stefon Diggs	52	720	13.8	55.4	40T	4	13	1	31	2
Tyler Lockett	51	664	13	41.5	49T	6	9	2	31	0
Jamison Crowder	59	604	10.2	37.8	44	2	7	1	34	2
Dorial Green-Beckham	32	549	17.2	34.3	47T	4	10	1	30	0
Duke Johnson	61	534	8.8	33.4	52	2	8	1	23	1
DeVante Parker	26	494	19	35.3	49	3	9	2	20	0
Devin Funchess	31	473	15.3	29.6	52	5	5	2	24	1
Will Tye	42	464	11	35.7	45	3	5	1	23	1
David Johnson	36	457	12.7	28.6	55T	4	6	2	21	1

So, who gets the nod overall? Realistically, the vote might skew to the QBs, but this is an award that either goes to Gurley or Cooper. Buzz is going with Cooper but expects the hardware might go to Gurley since he was among the overall elite at his position in the league. Cooper’s stats are strong for a rookie and he’s a definite playmaker, but there were others who put up even more impressive stats at the position.

Who gets your Rookie of the Year pick? Vote below or tell us in the comments.

—

Follow Buzz on Twitter @BlowoutBuzz or send email to BlowoutBuzz@blowoutcards.com. 

>> Click here to shop for 2015 football boxes on BlowoutCards.com.