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| Alec Baldwin returns to host the NFL Honors. |
To start, I would like to congratulate Baltimore Ravens WR
Anquan Boldin on winning the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. Even if you
don’t know anything about Boldin outside of what he said to the media on Friday
when it was announced, you can tell that the award is well deserved by him.
All other end-of-season awards will be given out at the 2nd
Annual NFL Honors the night before the Super Bowl. Here are my picks for the
major awards.
Most Valuable Player
– Minnesota Vikings RB, Adrian Peterson
This is an easy choice for me. The NFL seems to believe that
a playoff appearance is required to name a player MVP. I likely would have
chosen Adrian Peterson anyway, but it’s a no-brainer now.
Adrian Peterson came back from tearing two ligaments in his
left knee last season and chased down Eric Dickerson’s rushing record, falling
just 9 yards short when the final whistle sounded on the 2012 regular season.
He carried his team through the second half of its season and was more valuable
to his team than any other player on a playoff team this year.
Coach of the Year – Indianapolis
Colts Interim HC, Bruce Arians
Many people think Leslie Frazier should win this awards, and
I don’t dispute that. Frazier did a terrific job in Minnesota. But it is hard
for me to give a Coach of the Year award to a coach who has the MVP on his
team.
Bruce Arians wasn’t even supposed to be the head coach this
season, but Chuck Pagano was unable to work for most of the season due to
leukemia treatment. Arians did an amazing job in Pagano’s absence, leading a
team in a rebuilding phase to a postseason birth.
Offensive Player of
the Year – Green Bay Packers QB, Aaron Rodgers
Everything in me said to give this to my runner-up MVP,
which was Peyton Manning. But this is about the offensive player with the best
stats, the player who performed the best. I don’t like to give multiple awards
to the same player, so I couldn’t give it to Adrian Peterson. Instead, I will
give it to Aaron Rodgers.
Rodgers led the NFL in passer rating for the second
consecutive season. His TD-INT ratio was not much worse than it was last season.
In addition, it was his fourth consecutive season with a completion percentage
over 64% and a passer rating over 100.0.
Ever since I was old enough to really know what was
happening around the NFL, it was always Peyton Manning and Tom Brady as the
best two quarterbacks in the league and the guys putting their names among the
all-time greats. But Aaron Rodgers is really starting to put his name in that
conversation for best quarterback in the league right now. It won’t be long
before he is in the ‘all-time’ conversation.
Defensive Player of
the Year – Houston Texans DE, J.J. Watt
Aldon Smith was Watt’s closest competition in this race, but
Watt did much more than chase Michael Strahan’s sack record – in fifteen starts
this season, Watt had 20.5 sacks and 2 fumble recoveries.
Watt also had 16 passes defended, tied for 10th
in the NFL. For reference, the highest total for a linebacker belonged to
London Fletcher, who tied for 38th in the league. For a fellow
defensive lineman, you have to go all the way down to 60th, Corey
Liuget of the San Diego Chargers. ‘J.J. Swat,’ as people are calling him, was
outstanding this season and is my clear front-runner for this award.
Offensive Rookie of
the Year – Washington Redskins QB, Robert Griffin III
Before you accuse me of being a homer, let me explain. This
was my initial choice. Then I changed to Russell Wilson because RG3 has an
unfair advantage in Alfred Morris. But how disrespectful would it be to
Marshawn Lynch for me to say that? Both running backs were near the top of the
league in rushing.
So I’m back to Griffin III. But now that I’ve explained why
RG3, why not Wilson? It isn’t so much
that I think RG3 has performed better than Wilson; I feel like he does more than Wilson and at a slightly
higher level. Wilson leads receivers into open space very well, but so does
RG3. Wilson is very fast and can rip off big runs when he has to; so can RG3.
But Griffin III has shown that he can run the read-option at a slightly higher
level, reading the defense slightly faster than Wilson can. RG3 has also has
also proven to be a little more accurate throwing into tight coverage than
Wilson has.
It’s a close race, and I won’t be disappointed either way
because both rookies deserve this award. But RG3 is a slight front-runner in my
opinion.
Defensive Rookie of
the Year – Carolina Panthers LB, Luke Kuechly
Lost in the shadow of the offensive rookies are the
defensive rookies, and there were plenty of good ones. But the rookie
linebacker from Carolina was ahead of the rest. Kuechly led the NFL with 164
tackles in his rookie season, 103 of them solo. He also had a sack, 3 fumble
recoveries, 3 interceptions, 8 passes defended (just three fewer than the
leading linebacker), and 11 stuffs – stuffs are a tackle at or behind the line
of scrimmage. His 11 stuffs resulted in a total loss of 30 yards.
These don’t look like rookie numbers, but they belong to
one. In a season dominated by rookie quarterbacks and a pair of rookie running
backs, Kuechly could be the Pepsi Max Rookie of the Year if the voters weren’t
so offense-oriented.
Comeback Player of
the Year – Denver Broncos QB, Peyton Manning
Adrian Peterson tore two ligaments in his left knee last
December. There were questions of whether he would be back for Week 1 of the
2012 season, or if he would be back for the 2012 season at all. Would he ever
run at the same level? All he did was chase Eric Dickerson’s single-season
rushing record.
Peyton Manning had four neck surgeries in a 19-month span.
Some doctors didn’t think he would play again ever. When he was
cleared, would he be able to put any velocity on the ball? We knew he would
still be brilliant, but would his body be anywhere near his mind? All he did
was have one of the best years of his career with a brand new team, new weapons,
new coaches, in altitude for half his games, and outdoors, where he had been criticized for much of his career in
Indianapolis.
I think they are on fairly equal footing. Some will point to
Peterson nearly breaking a record and Manning not nearly breaking a record as a reason to give it to Peterson,
which is a perfectly legitimate point. But I give a little more weight to the
fact that Peterson only missed one game in 2011 while Manning missed the entire season.
It’s a tough decision, but I think Manning is a little more
deserving of this award.
