The Kansas City Chiefs have announced their in-house player awards for the 2018 season. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes has won the Derrick Thomas Most Valuable Player award, and offensive lineman Andrew Wylie has won the Mack Lee Hill award, given annually to the best rookie on the team.

Chiefs players and coaches vote on these awards.

Mahomes, of course, was an obvious choice. In only his first season as a starter, in 2018 he became only the second quarterback in the NFL — and the youngest ever — to pass for 5,000 yards and 50 touchdowns in a season. That was just the beginning.

He also threw 31 touchdown passes in road games — surpassing an NFL record of 29 set by Tom Brady in 2007. He now holds the Chiefs single-season records for pass completions. touchdowns, and yards. He had 13 games where his passer rating was 100 or above in 2018 — also a franchise record. His season passer rating of 113.8 was the seventh-best in NFL history among starting quarterbacks, and he also became the youngest quarterback in NFL history to have a season passer rating above 110.

Wylie, 24, was signed by the Indianapolis Colts as an undrafted free agent after the 2017 NFL Draft. On and off the Colts roster and practice squad through training camp, he was cut for good in late September, and was then added to the Cleveland Browns practice squad. Cut again in December, he went to the Los Angeles Chargers practice squad, remaining through the end of the season. Last January, the Chiefs signed Wylie to a reserves/future contract, and he made the final 53-man roster in September. Our comment on Wylie making the team didn’t see what was coming.

The Chiefs kept nine offensive linemen, and they must have felt like they needed to in order to protect long-term offensive line project Kahlil McKenzie. Putting McKenzie on the practice squad would have made him eligible to be signed by any other team. Andrew Wylie makes the team in the “Zach Fulton” honorary sixth-man position, with Witzmann and Devey providing more depth.

With one injury after another on the offensive line, Wylie suddenly became an essential part of the Chiefs offense, becoming a starter in Week 7, and eventually settling in at right guard while Laurent Duvernay-Tardif was on injured reserve. He allowed just two sacks and 22 pressures on the season.

All-Time Derrick Thomas MVPs Year Player(s) 1979 Gary Barbaro 1980 Art Still 1981 Joe Delaney 1982 Gary Green 1983 Bill Kenney 1984 Art Still 1985 Lloyd Burruss 1986 Albert Lewis 1987 Carlos Carson 1988 Deron Cherry 1989 Christian Okoye 1990 Steve DeBerg 1991 Derrick Thomas 1992 Neil Smith 1993 Marcus Allen 1994 Derrick Thomas 1995 Marcus Allen 1996 Mark Collins 1997 Andre Rison 1998 Glenn Parker 1999 Marvcus Patton 2000 Derrick Alexander 2001 Priest Holmes 2002 Priest Holmes 2003 Trent Green 2004 Trent Green 2005 Larry Johnson 2006 Larry Johnson 2007 Jared Allen 2008 Tony Gonzalez 2009 Jamaal Charles 2010 Jamaal Charles 2011 Derrick Johnson 2012 Jamaal Charles 2013 Jamaal Charles 2014 Justin Houston 2015 Alex Smith & Eric Berry 2016 Eric Berry 2017 Alex Smith 2018 Patrick Mahomes