NFL 2019: Midseason Awards
We have surpassed week eight of the NFL regular season and as always it is time to reflect a little and hand out the biggest awards if the season ended today. So this is not a projection or prediction for what will happen, but rather who I would vote for as of right now.
Obviously there are biases to the quarterback for the MVP or Rookie of the Year award, most of the decisions are largely based around statistics, since I don’t believe a lot of the voters are film-junkies necessarily, and they tend to spread, such as giving Coach of the Year to the hottest name or differentiating between MVP and Offensive Player of the Year. So I just picked the winners based on who I think best suits the descriptions and gave out three more names that I think should be in the discussion.
This includes young superstar quarterbacks, late-round picks in the Rookie of the Year discussions, genius coaches who have led their teams to some of the best records in the league and guys coming back from injury to take another step as players.
Here is who I would vote for:
MVP – Aaron Rodgers
This early competition for MVP has been pretty interesting up to this point. The reigning winner Patrick Mahomes looked like he would run away with the award through the first four weeks, but the Chiefs lost their next two with their QB taking a little step back before ultimately hurting his knee at Denver.
Then it was Russell Wilson who took over the lead after the first quarter of the season by pulling out magic and not turning the ball over, but he had by far his worst showing in a bad home loss to the Ravens and lost some of that shine.
Then there’s a running back in Christian McCaffrey who got some love for carrying his team to four straight victories with their backup QB, but his numbers against the Bucs in London weren’t spectacular and outside of one big run you saw that his impact can be limited in a blowout loss to San Francisco. And finally we have a guy in Houston who is proving that he belongs in that conversation with elite signal-callers by making Houdini-like plays and carving up defenses.
So now I am picking the guy who has been just smoking hot these last few weeks in Aaron Rodgers. I love Russ and he is a close second, but with Mahomes missing some time, I feel like everybody is finally back to appreciating how special a playmaker this guy is. Green Bay’s signal-caller is second in the NFL in passing yards and with 16 touchdowns compared to only two interceptions. He has the highest yards per attempt (8.2) and quarterback rating (106.7) since his last MVP season in 2014, while leading a team that now is is 7-1.
The Packers have already beaten every other team in the NFC North, won big at Dallas and their lone loss came by a few inches to the Eagles on Thursday Night, where one of Rodgers’ receiver was responsible for one of the QBs two picks on the year and gave away the game with it. Despite the lineup featuring several undrafted free agents at receiver, he is tied for second with 34 completions for 20+ yards. He has also added about 100 yards on the ground with a few crucial scrambles and one extra score.
The next three: Russell Wilson, Deshaun Watson and Christian McCaffrey