Aaron Donald is the CBS Sports expert’s pick for NFL Comeback Player of the Year, with another “CPOY” long-shot highlighted

The NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year conversation is already in motion, and on August 13, CBS Sports used its annual futures-betting format to spotlight two players it viewed as higher-upside targets for the award market. The article was written as part of a broader NFL SportsLine futures betting draft, which the outlet described as a snake draft used to select award and win-total markets, with whoever “makes” the most taking home the pool of entry fees.

Within that framework, Aaron Donald was presented as the expert’s primary Comeback Player of the Year selection. The central theme was straightforward: Donald’s status and reputation give him an immediate baseline for any comeback storyline, and an elite defensive player can materially affect the award conversation if he returns to form at the level voters typically reward for a “comeback” year.

CBS Sports also pointed readers toward a separate, “deep CPOY sleeper” for the same award, emphasizing that the value of these long-shot futures is tied to identifying a candidate whose name is less likely to dominate early preseason conversations. While the piece focused on two options, it framed the exercise more broadly as an early-season look at how award markets can differ from the most common consensus picks.

The article’s discussion, by its nature, leaned on futures-market logic rather than week-to-week performance specifics. In other words, it treated comeback candidacy as a combination of player profile and narrative fit, not as a claim that a particular season outcome is guaranteed. That distinction matters, because Comeback Player of the Year is frequently influenced by voters’ perception of both the “before” and the “after,” and preseason award previews can sometimes overstate how quickly a storyline takes hold.

For context, Donald’s name is one of the NFL’s few that can immediately carry weight in an awards conversation, given his long history of production and award recognition. When an article uses Donald as its top CPOY futures point, it is essentially banking on the idea that a return to a “dominant impact” role would do more than just help a defense. It would also align with what voters typically treat as the clearest example of a player rebounding to the forefront of his position.

The CBS Sports piece also implied that betting-leaning award previews are often best read as a way to explore alternative narratives, especially when a sleeper can be undervalued early by the market or by casual fan attention. As training camps progress and the preseason tightens the information loop, the award picture for Comeback Player of the Year will likely shift from speculation toward visible role changes, snap impacts, and performance indicators that make comeback cases easier to justify.

Going forward, the key thing to watch for either candidate is how their offseason-to-regular-season transition shapes their in-game footprint. For a player like Donald, that means whether his role supports meaningful defensive impact, while for the sleeper, it means whether the player earns enough attention through consistent production to move from “long-shot” to “real contender” in voters’ eyes. Until then, futures narratives should be treated as informed conjecture, not confirmation of an eventual outcome.