MVP

What an enthralling season of individual performances. The shortened offseason stunted defenses early in the year and–outside of a small handful of units–they were playing catch-up all year long. This allowed a number of individuals to elevate their play which, in turn, saw long-standing records tumble.

Finding a single Most Valuable Player is tough in any one season, and this year was no different as an argument could be made for more than a few standouts. Whether they were making the difference for playoff teams or holding their team up from abject misery, many deserve recognition and they will receive it here.

Two players, though,  separated themselves from the pack from the very first game and maintained that lead all the way through. It’s between those two that we have to choose who takes home the MVP trophy and, who knows, those they could ultimately decide Lombardi’s home at the end of the 2011 NFL Season.

In the season of the offense, we give our take on who has been the NFL’s Most Valuable Player.

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Just when you think he can’t do any more to sow up his inevitable MVP selection, Aaron Rodgers goes and has that drive against the Giants. The ease of it almost made you forget how clutch he was once again as the Packer continues to put forth one of the greatest seasons a quarterback has ever had.

One of the voters in our MVP awards race sees it as such an open-and-shut case that he attempted to return a ballot that featured Rodgers as his top 10 choices. In a competition where second place is joint last, he might be onto something.

Instead he, like all the analysts, had to fill in their Top 10 before I collated the results in the final edition of our MVP preview before we deliver the real thing at the end of the season. No. 1 is a foregone conclusion, but what about the rest? Let’s see.

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Before we start focusing on Week 11, how about we update our Most Valuable Player award? Sounds like the right thing to do.

PFF Founder Neil Hornsby couldn’t hack the pressure of making a vote this week so it was left to Sam Monson, Ben Stockwell and I to rank the most valuable players in the league.

Needless to say, there was a Green Bay Packer at the top, but maybe you’ll at least be interested in (if not amazed by) some of the players who made it into our Top 10.

Or maybe not. In any case here’s here are our frontrunners in the race for the league’s MVP.

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The problem with the NFL’s MVP debate is that it plays out like the chase for the college football championship: It’s all subjective. It’s all supposition, and inference, and who did what against who, and in the end there can be several different options for No. 1.

Our seven voters were asked to pick their top 20 choices for MVP, and there were 44 different players mentioned – including four different players as MVP: Tom Brady, Matt Ryan, Aaron Rodgers and Peyton Manning. Cases can be made for all four as deserving of the crown, which we’ll detail below, and trying to decide between them is nitpicking on an epic scale.

But what does it all mean? Considering the fact that only one of our top 10 finishers (Philip Rivers) won’t be in the postseason, the true MVP won’t be crowned until February.

Whichever one of these superstars actually ends up with the Vince Lombardi Trophy will be 2010’s real MVP – and there’s nothing subjective about that. Read the rest of this entry »

Our Sam Monson spent some of his week on with the Patriots Football Weekly podcasters, talking about the MVP race and why Tom Brady – still – isn’t atop our list. His ears are still ringing from the cries of disbelief.

The MVP debate has been boiled down to quarterbacks, and rightly so. There are at least seven and maybe even eight MVP-caliber QBs this year, and Brady certainly seems like the easy choice with everyone more or less using the same formula: Best passer rating + best team record = MVP quarterback.

It’s not invalid, and it’s tough to argue against. But Brady is in second place after our 10 internal ballots were tabulated, behind a guy with a worse passer rating and a worse record – but one we agree is having a better and more valuable season.
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Our 10 top candidates for MVP remain the same this week, but we have a new leader that looks a lot like the old leader.

Back when we started this feature, Philip Rivers was the solid No. 1 choice before team fortunes and slightly diminished his accomplishments. Now, he’s back in charge. Our 10 voters were split on the relative merits of Michael Vick, Matt Ryan and Tom Brady, but almost everyone placed Rivers 1, 2, 3 or 4.

And why not? He entered the Week 15 grading period as our top-rated passer, and the Chargers’ injuries in the receiving core have been notable. Of course, it’s not as simple as that – San Diego’s receivers have all been pretty good this year regardless of pedigree, and Rivers has taken a remarkable amount of penalties that knock his overall grade down.

But he’s also been the most consistent performer of any QB this year, notable in a season where there have been so many good ones. Read the rest of this entry »

While the MVP race appears to be signed, sealed and delivered to Tom Brady, the battle for our choice is well up for grabs with three weeks to play.

Brady, Philip Rivers, Drew Brees, Michael Vick, Matt Ryan and Aaron Rodgers all got first-place votes among our 10 ballot-boxers, and the difference between first place and third place is just two votes. (10 points for a first-place vote, nine for second, etc.)

And the leader is …

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And down the stretch they come!

With four games left to play, the voting has tightened significantly among our 10 balloteers, and it seems like there are five candidates slugging it out: Matt Ryan, Aaron Rodgers, Philip Rivers, Michael Vick and Tom Brady.

All five quarterbacks had at least one voter rank them either first or second, and the gap between Ryan and Rodgers at the top is a single vote.
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There was an elementary school campaign that some of us were treated to as kids that emphasized “The Three Rs,” namely Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic.

Well, this year’s MVP race is also shaping up as the Three Rs right now, namely Rivers, Ryan and Rodgers.

Philip Rivers retained the top spot by the cumulative voting of our 10 selectors, but lost two of his first-place votes to Matt Ryan (and one to Peyton Hillis. The football world is starting to catch up to our praise of Ryan (the No. 1 passer in our rankings), and a surgical effort vs. Green Bay in a big national game didn’t hurt.

Aaron Rodgers was similarly good in that NFC showdown, and moved up a spot this week despite the loss (and a key fumble).
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While our clear leader in the MVP race, Philip Rivers, is probably the odds-on favorite with the actual MVP voters as well, Tom Brady isn’t far behind in the eyes of the national media and fans.

But our analysts aren’t as sold. Only three of our 10 voters listed Brady on their ballot, with one first-place vote not even enough to get him in the top 10.

Ben Stockwell feels that Brady, who ranks outside our top 10 in QB grades, doesn’t have to make tough throws in the Patriots’ quick-pass offense — in other words, his success (four INTs,100.6 passer rating) is as much a product of the system then his own individual brilliance.

On to the top 10, which features five QBs but not the Pats’ future Hall of Famer.

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