The National Football League Rookie of the Year Award refers to any number of awards presented by various entities to the top American football rookie(s) in the National Football League (NFL). The NFL considers the rookie of the year award by the Associated Press (AP) to be its official honor.
The Pepsi NFL Rookie of the Year award is an annual award given since 2002 to the top rookie in the NFL. The winner is selected by fans through an online voting process at NFL.com.
Every week during the NFL regular season, five finalists are chosen for the Pepsi NFL Rookie of the Week award, and the winner is determined by fan voting online. Those results are used to help determine the finalists for the Rookie of the Year award. Voting occurs throughout the postseason and concludes the week before the Super Bowl. More than 350,000 votes were cast for the inaugural award in 2002, 1.002 million votes in 2009, and more than 1.59 million votes in 2010. Since 2011, the winner of the Pepsi Rookie of the Year award is announced at the NFL Honors show the night before the Super Bowl.
The Pro Football Weekly/Pro Football Writers Association (PFW/PFWA) Rookie of the Year awards have been given annually to an offensive and defensive rookie in the NFL since 1969, except in 1985. In 2013, PFWA began selecting an overall NFL rookie of the year in addition to its offensive and defensive honors. The winners are chosen by Pro Football Weekly writers/editors and PFWA members.
The Sporting News NFL Rookie of the Year award is chosen annually by NFL players, coaches, and executives. There were 617 voters in 2010, 632 voters in 2011, and over 800 voters in 2012.
United Press International (UPI) awarded an annual NFL Rookie of the Year award from 1955–1959 and two annual awards from 1960 to 1996. From 1960 to 1969 the awards went to a rookie from the NFL and American Football League (AFL), and after the AFL–NFL merger in 1970, the awards went to a rookie from the National Football Conference (NFC) and American Football Conference (AFC).