Offensive Player of the Year

The 2011 regular season is no more, but it will live on in the history books as we saw a season where records were broken all across the league. Dan Marino and Kellen Winslow’s single-season yardage marks were both shattered this season as a pair of records fell that had stood for a combined 58 years. All four of the players to top those marks feature in our Offensive Player of the Year list, but none of them finished at the top, giving you some idea of the quality of play we saw this season.

With an offseason truncated through protracted CBA negotiations and a lengthy lockout, many speculated that defenses would be ahead all season, but if anything the reverse was true, with offensive players starting off fast and never looking back. Here we’re going to run through 10 of the best seasons from the offensive side of the ball.

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We may be in the holiday season right now but there’s a far more interesting, and even more stressful season coming on.

Awards season in the NFL.

This is the time to make those near-impossible personal preference decisions as to who the best players are at each position. A thankless task but one that often opens up some worthy debate. Pro Football Focus’ core group of analysts have each picked a guy they think warrants consideration for the Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year Awards. Offering these names for discussion, we invite your thoughts on the matter. In the comments field below, let us know who you’d pick and why.

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Editor’s Note: As the NFL releases its major awards this week we’ll re-run our choices for comparison’s sake. This originally ran Jan. 7.

While the individual level of quarterback play hasn’t quite hit the heights of Philip Rivers, et al. in 2009, the sheer quantity of quality quarterback play this year has been staggering.

Whatever type of quarterback tickles your fancy, there’s been something for you. We’ve seen the electric, walking highlight reel in Michael Vick. The cool-as-ice Matt Ryan converting clutch third downs and leading fourth-quarter comebacks. The impeccable Tom Brady redefining the notion of mistake-free football. Then you throw in the usual guys carrying their teams (yes, we’re looking at you, Rivers, Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees) and you understand why our final list for Offensive Player of the Year has more than a proportionate share of quarterbacks.

But it was almost stolen away by a running back whose greatness was only limited by his coach’s decision to keep him fresh.

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And so the end is nearly here. Next week we’ll be announcing our end of year awards so this is the last time we’ll be putting these lists together. That means we’re getting the criticism in while the going is good.

So tight are things at the top that you could make a legitimate case for anyone in the top 10 when you look at their offensive achievements. In fact, you could go beyond the top 10 and include a few more after a year of some tremendous displays.

But you didn’t come here to watch me build it up did you? So let’s get to the rankings.
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You can’t have a below-average three-game stretch and expect to lead these rankings, as Matt Ryan proves this week. Instead, you need to play at the kind of level that Philip Rivers displayed in dismantling his divisional rival Chiefs (we’re not on to his Thursday night game yet).

That’s why he has moved to the top, and while the calls for Tom Brady to move up become almost deafening, we’ll stick to our guns that as a passer Brady isn’t making the kind of throws that would earn him a spot on the top 10 (which isn’t to say he isn’t a top-five MVP candidate, as you can see from our rankings there).

No, we’ve rewarded some players who are playing lights-out at positions that are largely ignored when the votes are tallied. We love us some big ol’ nasty offensive linemen. Don’t you?

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In 2010 we’ve become accustomed to great quarterback play. We’ve awarded the highest grades we’ve ever given to them and as a result they’ve built quite the lead over the nearest challengers.

And then Week 13 happened. Pretty much all the top quarterbacks had bad weeks by the high standards they had set themselves, and it makes this Offensive Player of the Year race all the more interesting.

In fact it’s such a tight race that if you asked 100 people to compile a list, I doubt you’d get any two of them looking identical. Indeed it’s a list where Tom Brady doesn’t even get an honorable mention because as valuable as he is to the Patriots’ system, on a per-position basis he isn’t doing as much (that’s bound to raise the ire of some Brady fans) as the other guys on this list.

And I have Brady in my top five MVP candidates. Such is the battle for offensive player of the year. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s always going to be some controversy doing these things. People will ask, how can you have a guy 11th in yardage, ninth in touchdowns and 10th in completion percentage as your top offensive player?

You know what I say to that? Watch the guy.

The Falcons are 9-2 for a reason, and the biggest reason is Matt Ryan. His ability to make every throw and make the right decisions. His ability to lead long drives, sustaining them by making clutch throws. His ability to win games.

That’s the guy you should want as your quarterback. So while there are a number of strong other candidates, I just can’t look past Matty Ice. Not at this moment, but that’s not to say things will change with the level of QB play being about as good as I can remember and several other positions having some out-of-this-world performers.

It’s a good time for the offensive elite, that’s for sure. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s a new man at the top of our Offensive Player of the Year rankings.

And it’s getting chilly in here.

With ice running through his veins, the ultra-composed Matt Ryan is playing at a level right now that has us thinking we’re seeing a new guy entering the ranks of the elite QB. But he can’t afford to drop off given the quality of play we’re getting at the QB spot.

There are some people you’ll be surprised not to see in this list. Roddy White is hurt by far too many penalties and bad plays (though he still ranks as our third overall receiver), Adrian Peterson has dropped out as the Vikings’ funk catches on to his most recent display and we’re ignoring the Michael Vick question for this week.

So, just who did make the list? Read the rest of this entry »

It’s still Philip Rivers in control, but right now things are so tight at the top you could quite comfortably give it to a number of different players and be comfortable with the choice.

Be sure to keep checking back because with each week and with each game there’s a certain former Atlanta Falcons quarterback who is going to challenge the more snaps he gets. But right now he’ll have to settle for something other than first place in our Offensive Player of the Year top ten.
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There’s a new man sitting atop our Offensive Player of the Year top ten.

So while it feels somewhat dirty, and possibly a little bit premature, to move Peyton Manning down on the back of one dodgy outing, we can’t argue with the performances of our top guy, who is seemingly intent on carrying his underachieving franchise into the playoffs … again.

But there are some other players putting pressure on our top two in what is turning out to be a very competitive race.
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