Every NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year Winner in History
The Associated Press has picked a top offensive rookie every season since 1957, starting with Jim Brown and running through Carolina receiver Tetairoa McMillan in 2025. For the first ten years it was simply "Rookie of the Year" and every winner happened to be an offensive player; the AP added a separate defensive award in 1967, which is when the offensive and defensive tracks formally split.
Sixty-nine winners, one per season. Running backs own the list, but the last decade belongs almost entirely to quarterbacks and receivers. Here is the whole thing.
The Short Answer
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| First winner | 1957, Jim Brown, RB, Cleveland Browns |
| Total winners through 2025 | 69 |
| When the award split | 1967, when the AP added a Defensive Rookie of the Year |
| Most common position | Running back (40 of 69) |
| Winners taken No. 1 overall | 6 |
| Latest-drafted winner | Jimmy Orr, 25th round, 291st overall (1957 draft) |
| Hall of Famers | 16 so far |
| Won a title as a rookie | 1 — Tony Dorsett, Super Bowl XII |
| Most recent winner | Tetairoa McMillan, WR, Carolina Panthers (2025) |
How the Award Actually Works
This trips people up, so it is worth being precise about it.
The AP began naming an NFL Rookie of the Year after the 1957 season. From 1957 through 1966 there was one award, not two, and it went to an offensive player all ten times. In 1967 the AP started naming a Defensive Rookie of the Year alongside it, and from that point forward the offensive honor has been its own award with its own ballot.
Because of that history, sources count the list two different ways. Pro-Football-Reference treats the Offensive Rookie of the Year award as beginning in 1967 and files the 1957–1966 winners under the older undivided "NFL Rookie of the Year." Wikipedia and most media outlets fold those ten seasons into the offensive list, since every winner was an offensive player anyway. The table below uses the second approach and flags the split.
Every AP Offensive Rookie of the Year, 1957–2025
| Season | Player | Pos | Team | Draft slot |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1957 | Jim Brown | RB | Cleveland Browns | Rd 1, No. 6 |
| 1958 | Jimmy Orr | WR | Pittsburgh Steelers | Rd 25, No. 291 (1957, Rams) |
| 1959 | Boyd Dowler | WR | Green Bay Packers | Rd 3, No. 25 |
| 1960 | Gail Cogdill | WR | Detroit Lions | Rd 6, No. 63 |
| 1961 | Mike Ditka | TE | Chicago Bears | Rd 1, No. 5 |
| 1962 | Ronnie Bull | RB | Chicago Bears | Rd 1, No. 7 |
| 1963 | Paul Flatley | WR | Minnesota Vikings | Rd 4, No. 44 |
| 1964 | Charley Taylor | RB | Washington | Rd 1, No. 3 |
| 1965 | Gale Sayers | RB | Chicago Bears | Rd 1, No. 4 |
| 1966 | Johnny Roland | RB | St. Louis Cardinals | Rd 4, No. 54 (1965) |
| 1967 | Mel Farr | RB | Detroit Lions | Rd 1, No. 7 |
| 1968 | Earl McCullouch | WR | Detroit Lions | Rd 1, No. 24 |
| 1969 | Calvin Hill | RB | Dallas Cowboys | Rd 1, No. 24 |
| 1970 | Dennis Shaw | QB | Buffalo Bills | Rd 2, No. 30 |
| 1971 | John Brockington | FB | Green Bay Packers | Rd 1, No. 9 |
| 1972 | Franco Harris | FB | Pittsburgh Steelers | Rd 1, No. 13 |
| 1973 | Chuck Foreman | RB | Minnesota Vikings | Rd 1, No. 12 |
| 1974 | Don Woods | RB | San Diego Chargers | Rd 6, No. 134 (Packers) |
| 1975 | Mike Thomas | RB | Washington | Rd 5, No. 108 |
| 1976 | Sammy White | WR | Minnesota Vikings | Rd 2, No. 54 |
| 1977 | Tony Dorsett | RB | Dallas Cowboys | Rd 1, No. 2 |
| 1978 | Earl Campbell | RB | Houston Oilers | Rd 1, No. 1 |
| 1979 | Ottis Anderson | RB | St. Louis Cardinals | Rd 1, No. 8 |
| 1980 | Billy Sims | RB | Detroit Lions | Rd 1, No. 1 |
| 1981 | George Rogers | RB | New Orleans Saints | Rd 1, No. 1 |
| 1982 | Marcus Allen | RB | Los Angeles Raiders | Rd 1, No. 10 |
| 1983 | Eric Dickerson | RB | Los Angeles Rams | Rd 1, No. 2 |
| 1984 | Louis Lipps | WR | Pittsburgh Steelers | Rd 1, No. 23 |
| 1985 | Eddie Brown | WR | Cincinnati Bengals | Rd 1, No. 13 |
| 1986 | Rueben Mayes | RB | New Orleans Saints | Rd 3, No. 57 |
| 1987 | Troy Stradford | RB | Miami Dolphins | Rd 4, No. 99 |
| 1988 | John Stephens | RB | New England Patriots | Rd 1, No. 17 |
| 1989 | Barry Sanders | RB | Detroit Lions | Rd 1, No. 3 |
| 1990 | Emmitt Smith | RB | Dallas Cowboys | Rd 1, No. 17 |
| 1991 | Leonard Russell | RB | New England Patriots | Rd 1, No. 14 |
| 1992 | Carl Pickens | WR | Cincinnati Bengals | Rd 2, No. 31 |
| 1993 | Jerome Bettis | RB | Los Angeles Rams | Rd 1, No. 10 |
| 1994 | Marshall Faulk | RB | Indianapolis Colts | Rd 1, No. 2 |
| 1995 | Curtis Martin | RB | New England Patriots | Rd 3, No. 74 |
| 1996 | Eddie George | RB | Houston Oilers | Rd 1, No. 14 |
| 1997 | Warrick Dunn | RB | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | Rd 1, No. 12 |
| 1998 | Randy Moss | WR | Minnesota Vikings | Rd 1, No. 21 |
| 1999 | Edgerrin James | RB | Indianapolis Colts | Rd 1, No. 4 |
| 2000 | Mike Anderson | RB | Denver Broncos | Rd 6, No. 189 |
| 2001 | Anthony Thomas | RB | Chicago Bears | Rd 2, No. 38 |
| 2002 | Clinton Portis | RB | Denver Broncos | Rd 2, No. 51 |
| 2003 | Anquan Boldin | WR | Arizona Cardinals | Rd 2, No. 54 |
| 2004 | Ben Roethlisberger | QB | Pittsburgh Steelers | Rd 1, No. 11 |
| 2005 | Cadillac Williams | RB | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | Rd 1, No. 5 |
| 2006 | Vince Young | QB | Tennessee Titans | Rd 1, No. 3 |
| 2007 | Adrian Peterson | RB | Minnesota Vikings | Rd 1, No. 7 |
| 2008 | Matt Ryan | QB | Atlanta Falcons | Rd 1, No. 3 |
| 2009 | Percy Harvin | WR | Minnesota Vikings | Rd 1, No. 22 |
| 2010 | Sam Bradford | QB | St. Louis Rams | Rd 1, No. 1 |
| 2011 | Cam Newton | QB | Carolina Panthers | Rd 1, No. 1 |
| 2012 | Robert Griffin III | QB | Washington | Rd 1, No. 2 |
| 2013 | Eddie Lacy | RB | Green Bay Packers | Rd 2, No. 61 |
| 2014 | Odell Beckham Jr. | WR | New York Giants | Rd 1, No. 12 |
| 2015 | Todd Gurley | RB | St. Louis Rams | Rd 1, No. 10 |
| 2016 | Dak Prescott | QB | Dallas Cowboys | Rd 4, No. 135 |
| 2017 | Alvin Kamara | RB | New Orleans Saints | Rd 3, No. 67 |
| 2018 | Saquon Barkley | RB | New York Giants | Rd 1, No. 2 |
| 2019 | Kyler Murray | QB | Arizona Cardinals | Rd 1, No. 1 |
| 2020 | Justin Herbert | QB | Los Angeles Chargers | Rd 1, No. 6 |
| 2021 | Ja'Marr Chase | WR | Cincinnati Bengals | Rd 1, No. 5 |
| 2022 | Garrett Wilson | WR | New York Jets | Rd 1, No. 10 |
| 2023 | C.J. Stroud | QB | Houston Texans | Rd 1, No. 2 |
| 2024 | Jayden Daniels | QB | Washington Commanders | Rd 1, No. 2 |
| 2025 | Tetairoa McMillan | WR | Carolina Panthers | Rd 1, No. 8 |
Seasons 1957 through 1966 were awarded as a single, undivided Rookie of the Year. Team names are the ones in use at the time. Draft slots are the player's original selection; where he won the award for a different team than the one that drafted him, the drafting club is noted.
Position Breakdown, Era by Era
Across all 69 seasons the split is:
| Position | Wins | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Running back / fullback | 40 | 58% |
| Wide receiver | 16 | 23% |
| Quarterback | 12 | 17% |
| Tight end | 1 | 1% |
Break it into eras and the story changes completely.
1957–1989. Running backs took 23 of 33. A rookie back who got 250 carries produced a number voters could see, and offenses were built to hand him the ball. Quarterbacks almost never won because teams almost never started them as rookies — Dennis Shaw in 1970 was the only QB winner in the award's first 33 years.
1990–2009. The backs kept winning: 13 of 20, including several who arrived with little draft pedigree. Mike Anderson was a sixth-round pick and Curtis Martin a third-rounder. Receivers began breaking through as passing volume climbed, with Randy Moss's 17-touchdown 1998 the loudest example.
2010–2025. The reversal is stark. Quarterbacks have taken 8 of 16, receivers 4, and running backs 4 — and all four of those backs won between 2013 and 2018. No running back has won Offensive Rookie of the Year since Saquon Barkley in 2018, the longest drought at the position in the award's history. Rookie quarterbacks now start immediately instead of sitting, spread offenses give first-year receivers a real target share, and the backfield workload has been split across committees. Mike Ditka in 1961 remains the only tight end ever to win.
Six winners went No. 1 overall: Earl Campbell, Billy Sims, George Rogers, Sam Bradford, Cam Newton and Kyler Murray. On the other end, Jimmy Orr was a 25th-round pick in 1957 who won the award in 1958 with Pittsburgh, and Dak Prescott was a fourth-rounder who only started because of an injury ahead of him. For how the draft order that produces these picks is set, see How Does the NFL Draft Order Work.
The Hall of Famers
Sixteen Offensive Rookie of the Year winners have been enshrined in Canton:
| Player | OROY season | Enshrined |
|---|---|---|
| Jim Brown | 1957 | 1971 |
| Mike Ditka | 1961 | 1988 |
| Charley Taylor | 1964 | 1984 |
| Gale Sayers | 1965 | 1977 |
| Franco Harris | 1972 | 1990 |
| Tony Dorsett | 1977 | 1994 |
| Earl Campbell | 1978 | 1991 |
| Marcus Allen | 1982 | 2003 |
| Eric Dickerson | 1983 | 1999 |
| Barry Sanders | 1989 | 2004 |
| Emmitt Smith | 1990 | 2010 |
| Jerome Bettis | 1993 | 2015 |
| Marshall Faulk | 1994 | 2011 |
| Curtis Martin | 1995 | 2012 |
| Randy Moss | 1998 | 2018 |
| Edgerrin James | 1999 | 2020 |
All sixteen were running backs, receivers or a tight end. No quarterback who won this award has been enshrined yet, though Ben Roethlisberger and Adrian Peterson are both future candidates now working through the eligibility waiting period, and Matt Ryan retired with more than 60,000 passing yards.
The award is also not a guarantee of anything. Dennis Shaw, Don Woods, Troy Stradford, John Stephens, Leonard Russell and Anthony Thomas all won it and were out of a starting job within a few seasons. A great first year says a lot about opportunity and not always as much about the next decade. Only a handful of OROY winners have gone on to win league MVP — Earl Campbell, Marcus Allen, Emmitt Smith, Marshall Faulk, Cam Newton, Adrian Peterson and Matt Ryan among them, as the roll call at Every NFL MVP Winner in League History shows.
Rookies Who Won OROY and a Championship in the Same Season
Just one, and the number is smaller than most people guess.
Tony Dorsett, 1977. The Cowboys took Dorsett second overall, he rushed for over 1,000 yards as a rookie, won Offensive Rookie of the Year, and Dallas beat Denver in Super Bowl XII. Cross-check every other winner against the champion of that season and no one else lines up.
The near-misses are the interesting part. Chuck Foreman (1973) and Sammy White (1976) both reached the Super Bowl as rookies with Minnesota and lost. Ja'Marr Chase (2021) lost Super Bowl LVI with Cincinnati. Ben Roethlisberger (2004) went 13-0 as a rookie starter and lost the AFC Championship Game, then won the Super Bowl the following season.
Plenty of winners got their ring later. Franco Harris won four with Pittsburgh, Emmitt Smith three with Dallas, Marcus Allen one with the Raiders, Marshall Faulk one with the Rams, Jerome Bettis one in his final season, and Saquon Barkley one with Philadelphia in Super Bowl LIX, six seasons after his 2018 OROY. The full year-by-year champion list is at List of Every Super Bowl Winner by Year, and the individual game honors are covered in Every Super Bowl MVP Winner in NFL History.
Tetairoa McMillan, 2025
Carolina took McMillan eighth overall out of Arizona in the 2025 draft, and he played all 17 games, finishing with 70 catches for 1,014 yards and 7 touchdowns at 14.5 yards a reception. His 27 catches of 16-plus yards led all rookies, and he accounted for 30.7% of Carolina's receiving yards — the sixth-highest share in the NFL.
Carrying nearly a third of an offense as a rookie is unusual, and it gave a franchise that sits on the championship drought list without a title of any kind something to build around. He won with 41 of 50 first-place votes over a field that included Saints quarterback Tyler Shough, Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart, Patriots running back TreVeyon Henderson, Buccaneers receiver Emeka Egbuka and Seahawks lineman Grey Zabel. McMillan is the second Panther to win the award, joining Cam Newton in 2011.
On the defensive side of the same 2025 ballot, Browns linebacker Carson Schwesinger took Defensive Rookie of the Year, while teammate Myles Garrett won his second Defensive Player of the Year — the full list is at Every NFL Defensive Player of the Year Winner.
This page updates every February, once NFL Honors names the new Offensive Rookie of the Year.
FAQ
Who won Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2025? Tetairoa McMillan, wide receiver for the Carolina Panthers. He caught 70 passes for 1,014 yards and 7 touchdowns and took 41 of 50 first-place votes.
Who was the first NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year? Jim Brown in 1957, though at that point the AP gave out a single undivided Rookie of the Year award. The separate offensive and defensive awards date to 1967.
Why did the NFL split Rookie of the Year into offensive and defensive awards? The AP added a Defensive Rookie of the Year in 1967 so that first-year defenders had a category of their own. Before that, every winner from 1957 to 1966 was an offensive player, because offensive production is what shows up in a box score.
What position wins Offensive Rookie of the Year most often? Running back, with 40 of 69 wins. That dominance is historical, though. Since 2010, quarterbacks have won eight times, and no running back has won since 2018.
Has a quarterback ever won Offensive Rookie of the Year twice? No. Nobody has won the award twice — by definition you can only be a rookie once.
Which Offensive Rookies of the Year are in the Hall of Fame? Sixteen: Jim Brown, Mike Ditka, Charley Taylor, Gale Sayers, Franco Harris, Tony Dorsett, Earl Campbell, Marcus Allen, Eric Dickerson, Barry Sanders, Emmitt Smith, Jerome Bettis, Marshall Faulk, Curtis Martin, Randy Moss and Edgerrin James.
Has an Offensive Rookie of the Year ever won a Super Bowl in the same season? Once. Tony Dorsett won the award in 1977 and the Cowboys won Super Bowl XII that same season. No other winner has managed it.
Who is the lowest-drafted player to win the award? Jimmy Orr, taken in the 25th round with the 291st pick of the 1957 draft by the Rams. He won the 1958 award playing for Pittsburgh. In the modern seven-round era, Mike Anderson (sixth round, No. 189 in 2000) and Dak Prescott (fourth round, No. 135 in 2016) are the deepest picks to win.
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