Who Will Win the 2017/18 NFL MVP??

-Joe Gallagher

HELLO NOBODYSPORTS FRIENDS AND FANS, I AM ALIVE!  I have officially come out of my unannounced hiatus, and am back to giving my two cents to all you people who don’t want it!  (Who doesn’t want free money?  Cmon now!)

Well, it’s that time of the year again:  We have completed the regular NFL season.  Let’s pause for a moment as we remember the highs and lows of this season… Or for us Philly fans, the rock bottom known as a torn ACL… I mean we still finished tops in the NFC, that counts for something, right?  Right?? Anywho…

The playoffs will be upon us before we know it.  However, there is one award that recognizes the player who has been MOST IMPORTANT (or I think the word is valuable) to their team this season.  Every season, there are at least 1-2 very deserving candidates for this honor.  This season has been very interesting, as players have come out of the woodworks to fight for this honor.  Here is my breakdown of the top 5 players who I feel deserve the award.  I will list the 5 players first and make my argument for each one of them.  At the end, I will reveal who I think will ultimately (unfortunately… yes this is a foreshadow if you are familiar with previous posts of mine) win the award.  Let’s begin:

 

The Candidates (in no particular order):

 

Carson Wentz – Philadelphia Eagles

(Photo from Philly.com)

Yes, of course I listed him first.  You can call it my homer pick; however, you cannot argue that prior to the ACL injury, Wentz was having an MVP season.  Even having missed their last two games, Wentz currently leads the league with 33 Touchdowns and is second to only Alex Smith (5 INTs) with only 7 INTs.   His season QBR is 101.9 which is ranked 4th in the league.  He led the Eagles to an 11-2 record (best in the NFL) prior to his injury.  The Eagles were averaging 31.1 points per game (which was also tops in the NFL) when he went out with the injury.  There is precedent to previous MVP winners missing multiple games in a season.  Assuming he would’ve been sat in week 17 regardless, Wentz would have only missed 2 games (3 if we want to count week 17).  Both John Elway and Joe Montana (1987 & 1989 MVPs) missed 3 games in their respective MVP seasons.  Emmitt Smith, Marshall Faulk and Steve McNair (1993, 2000, 2003 MVP’s) each missed 2 games.  That being said, the argument can still be made that Wentz should be the MVP of this season.  Quarterbacking a 7-9 team to an 11-2 start the following season isn’t an easy task.  Wentz made it look like it was effortless.  And if you’ve seen any of the past two Eagles games…hes is CLEARLY the MVP of the team, franchise, city.  

 

Case Keenum – Minnesota Vikings

 

(Photo from Star Tribune)

The Quarterback of the NFC’s #2 seed (and Vegas’s favorite now for the NFC with Wentz out) has been absolutely, and mind-blowingly, lights out this year.  He has made a very good CASE (see what i did there) to be considered in MVP talks.  Check out this stat line (and keep in mind this is for Case. Keenum.): 3,547 pasing yards, 67.6% completion percentage (2nd in NFL), 22 TDs, 7 INTs, 98.3 rating in 15 games played.   Case. Keenum.  WHAT???  This is a guy with 24 TDs total combined the previous 4 seasons since being drafted out of the University of Houston.  This is a guy with 20 INTs and 13 fumbles during that same span… in only 26 games played… What is in the water up in Minneapolis?  Many people (myself included) wrote off the Vikings after Bradford went down…and it turned out that they had a MUCH better QB sitting on the bench.  Keenum won’t win it, and probably won’t get a ton of votes…but he deserves to be included in the discussion.   

 

Drew Brees – New Orleans Saints

 

(Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images; taken from Denver Post)

I mean, Brees’s name has to be on this list every year.  It still blows my mind he hasn’t won the award left.  He is statistically one of the greatest QB’s to ever play the game, and has kept Saints football relevant ever since he left the Chargers.  Let’s first look at the numbers.  A 72% completion percentage (1st in NFL) with 386 completions (1st in NFL), 22 TDs to only 8 INTs, 4,334 passing yards (4th in NFL) and a 103.9 rating (2nd in NFL), are pretty damn good numbers.  You can say Brees’s touchdown total is lower than normal, but that’s because of the two-headed monster known as Alvin Kamara and Mark Ingram who combined for 20 rushing TDs.  Considering that 3 of the 4 teams in the NFC South are playoff bound, and the NFC South is arguably the best division in the NFL, all of Brees’s numbers are even that more impressive.  I would argue for him all day.      

 

Todd Gurley – St. Louis… oh wait… Los Angeles (??) Rams…

 

(Photo credit: Kelvin Kuo of USA Today Sports)

Todd Gurley is the #1 RB in the league by 1,000 miles.  He is in the top 5 of all fantasy football players in points scored this year (which the top 12-13 are QB’s aside from him).  Let’s first look at his numbers.  He finished with 1,305 rushing yards (2nd in NFL, but would’ve easily been 1st if he played in the finale) and 13 rushing TD’s (1st in NFL) to go along with 6 receiving TD’s (1st in NFL for a RB).  He scored 19 of the Rams 45 touchdowns this season (42% of their scores), which means Gurley had 19 scores and the rest of the team combined for 26 scores.  That’s insane in itself.  The Rams as a team had 5,976 yards of offense…and 2,093 of them came from Gurley alone.  And keep in mind, he didn’t play in the team’s final game.  For you math people, that means Gurley along contributed 35% of the yards from scrimmage.  Now, I don’t want to discount the great season that Jared Goff had…but seriously, with this guy as a weapon?  C’mon now.  He led the team in receptions with 64.  My only knock on the guy is he had 5 fumbles, granted 4 came in the first 3 weeks of the season.  But really with all of those numbers, i can overlook the fumbles easily.  Could a running back be named MVP this season; an honor historically given to quarterbacks?  Maybe.  But probably not because of the next guy….ugh….

 

Tom Brady – New England Patriots

(Photo credit: Scott R. Galvin – USA Today Sports)

Well, well, well, here we have this Tom Brady guy.  A perennial MVP candidate, no matter what is happening around him, Brady has once again led his Patriots comrades to the best record in the AFC.  He led the league in passing yards with 4,577 (what else is new).  He threw 32 TDs to only 8 INTs (the balls were probably deflated or something…).  He had a rating of 102.8 (nobody actually knows what it means anyways).  He had 385 completions (yes, Brees beat him by 1).  He even ran the ball 25 times for a whopping 28 yards (that’s a lot for a 40 yr old).  Oh, and yes, he put up all those numbers as a 40 yr old in today’s NFL… The only good thing about Brady being named MVP is that in each of his prior two MVP seasons, he didn’t win the super bowl.  SO maybe if he wins MVP, the same will be true about this season.  Okay, I can live with that….. but I guess, well done Tom Brady for being the most valuable player in the NFL…who didn’t tear his ACL, or partially tear his calf, or injure his wrist, or break his collarbone… (yes, I’m talking Wentz, Antonio Brown, David Johnson and Aaron Rodgers… each of whom would’ve most likely been ranked above him if healthy…).  But, I’m not bitter.  Nope.  Never.

 

How I see the final votes:

Winner – Tom Brady

Runner-Up – Todd Gurley

3rd – Carson Wentz

4th – Case Keenum

5th – Drew Brees

 

I can’t discredit what Brady means to the New England Patriots.  Well, I mean I could if I went through and described the success that Matt Cassell, Brian Hoyer, Jimmy Garroppolo, and Jacoby Brissett have all had in that offense… But seriously, the ageless wonder known as Brady somehow still manages to keep his team at the top of the NFL.  So, as much as I hate to say it, or think it, Tom Brady will most-likely be your 2017 MVP.  

 

My personal pick; however, would be to look at the historical precedents….and give it to our Ginger Jesus, Mr. Wentzylvania himself: Carson Wentz.  

#NOBODYSPORTS

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