Wide Left End of Season Awards: All-Pro, MVP and Rookie Awards
I picked some end of season award winners, with what I think is an unorthodox process. Have fun!
We’re publishing end-of-year awards after most of the first round of the playoffs has been completed in part because we’re never ready for the end of the season until we’re there.
This is less about the “snubs” from other awards organizations and more about the philosophy of these awards and how we recognize high-level player performances. Despite my strong differences in disagreement with much of the sportswriting community about how these awards are doled out, I came to some pretty similar conclusions as that community did this year.
Let’s parse it out.
The MVP Discussion
Why We Shouldn’t Be Limited To Awarding Quarterbacks
In accordance with my take that we should not be automatically doling out the MVP to the best quarterback in the NFL, I’ve decided to broaden our scope and discuss who the best player in the NFL is this year. From that piece last year on the MVP award:
We do ourselves an enormous disservice by focusing on the word “valuable” in the MVP award. Historically, the award has gone to the most high-profile player in the NFL, often a quarterback but many times a running back and occasionally a defensive player (and once a kicker).
Since 2013, it’s only been given to quarterbacks. And that is tremendously boring. We already have an award for quarterbacks — it’s the All-Pro award at the position. If we need to, we can award individual positions with separate trophies like they do in college football.
But the holistic, year-end award that used to colloquially mean “the best player in the NFL” — even if it never truly meant that — now must go to one position. When no one at the position is compelling, we shy away from giving it to outstanding players at other positions.
These are much more interesting conversations that would allow us to better understand the demands of each of these positions or recognize players who separate themselves from the pack in bigger ways than passing EPA. Aaron Donald and J.J. Watt deserved multiple MVP seasons.
We have very detailed discussions about quarterbacks because of Brock Purdy’s candidacy. We did the same thing in 2012 with Griffin and 2016 with Ryan. In 2015, there was a conversation about quarterback running value or inflation of one-yard touchdown totals with Cam Newton. We added overall running value to our understanding in 2019 with Jackson.
Those rich conversations would allow us to more deeply examine questions about system fit and offensive linemen (the Evan Mathis question), supporting cast and running backs (do McCaffrey or Derrick Henry create their own production?) and the impact of late-winning pass rushers like Danielle Hunter when compared to early winners like Garrett.
Otherwise, we could be as literal as possible and award the player by dividing total quarterback EPA by salary cap impact. A literal reading of the award would only allow us to recognize high-performing quarterbacks on rookie contracts — a most-underpaid award.
A literal reading of the award forces us to debate between statistically underwhelming quarterbacks and compare them to quarterbacks whose film doesn’t astound. Let’s celebrate the best player in the NFL by giving them the award for being the best player in the NFL.
The MVP Candidates
So, let’s talk about it. Who has been the best player in the NFL this year? To me, the obvious candidates are Saquon Barkley, Derrick Henry, Ja’Marr Chase, Justin Jefferson, Penei Sewell, Myles Garrett, Xavier McKinney, Dexter Lawrence and Chris Jones. And, at quarterback, Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen. I’m not sure there’s a guard, center, linebacker or cornerback playing at the level of those players this year.
There are a few players in this tier that I can kind of put away when comparing great against great. Garrett, for example, is having an outstanding season but he’s not turning talent into impact at the level others are – something I typically don’t care about but in the context of the MVP and tight races feels like it should matter.
I’ve long held that Garrett is a more talented and effective edge rusher than the contemporaries he’s compared to despite some meager box score statistics but in the case of comparing him to other MVP candidates, I’m going to defer to the slightly lower sack numbers this year to keep him off the shortlist of potential MVP winners.
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