Depending on how the 2026 season goes, the San Francisco 49ers could take back-to-back NFL Comeback Player of the Year awards.
A year after Christian McCaffrey won the award, Bleacher Report’s Gary Davenport named new 49ers receiver Mike Evans or edge rusher Nick Bosa as a potential recipients for this upcoming season.
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Evans, 32, is coming off a season in which he played in just eight games due to injury and didn’t secure 1,000 receiving yards for the first time in his 12-year career. Now, he joins a 49ers offense that can optimize his ability and help him return to one of the best receivers in the NFL on one of the best offenses in the league.
Not only is Evans attempting to return from injury, but he’s also on a new team after signing with the 49ers in free agency.
A 49ers team with Super Bowl aspirations badly needs someone to step up as the team’s new No. 1 wide receiver, especially with Kittle rehabbing a torn Achilles suffered in the postseason a year ago.
Evans has shown for over a decade that he’s capable of being that guy. And if he’s healthy again, he could put up some of the biggest numbers of his career in 2026.
Evans is already turning heads at offseason workouts and is reportedly quickly establishing a connection with quarterback Brock Purdy. He should become the team’s top pass-catcher as Kittle recovers and returns from his Achilles injury and as head coach Kyle Shanahan attempts to scale back running back Christian McCaffrey’s snaps after he led the NFL in touches in 2025.
Bosa, 28, played just three games in 2025 after he tore his ACL for the second time in his career. He’s previously won Defensive Rookie of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, so perhaps another new award is in the cards for the seventh-year pro.
When Bosa is at his apex, he’s as good as any edge-rusher in the NFL. In 2022, he topped 50 tackles, tallied a whopping 48 quarterback hits, led the NFL in sacks with 18.5 and won Defensive Player of the Year honors.
That was the second of four straight Pro Bowl nods for the eight-year veteran. Bosa may not be Myles Garrett, but he isn’t that far off—and the 49ers badly need him on the field and 100 percent in the season opener against Garrett and the Rams.
The history of the award oscillates between players who come back from adverse situations or injury. McCaffrey won it in 2025 because he had one of the better seasons of his career a year after missing the majority of the season due to injury. Joe Burrow did the same when he won in 2024, while someone like Joe Flacco only won in 2023 because he uplifted a downtrodden Cleveland Browns team after rarely seeing the field in the previous seasons.
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If Evans took home the award, he’d be the first receiver to win it since Green Bay Packers star Jordy Nelson won in 2016. The last receiver before Nelson was Steve Smith Sr. of the Carolina Panthers in 2005. So, maybe it’s a once-in-a-decade sort of thing.
As for edge rushers, it’s been a bit longer of a wait. The last defensive end to win the award was Dallas Cowboys star Greg Ellis in 2007. Before that, it was New Orleans Saints‘ Joe Johnson in 2000.
This article originally appeared on Niners Wire: Analyst predicts 2 49ers stars who could win top NFL award in 2026
