Why should J.J. Watt be the NFL MVP?

This season's NFL MVP discussion has been one of the more exciting ones in recent memory. First, let's go though our candidates. We have the usual guys, Rodgers, Manning, Brady. Andrew Luck has had an impressive season and is looking like the guy Indianapolis thought he would be when they took him with the number 1 pick. You also have to include Demarco Murray who was a surprise, but we all know how good he has been when healthy, it was just a matter of playing every game. Tony Romo has a chance, and should definitely be discussed. I'd like to say Antonio Brown and Le'veon Bell are in the discussion and both have a strong case, but neither of them really have a chance of winning. Finally, there is J.J. Watt. It has been discussed a lot as he is the first defensive player to have a legitimate shot in the MVP discussion in awhile. So, why should J.J. Watt be the NFL MVP?

First let's look at what each candidate has done this season(in alphabetical order):

Le'veon Bell
Bell has been the ultimate all-purpose running back in his second season in the NFL. His pass blocking has been phenomenal, he has racked up 1,278 yards on the ground on 262 attempts, and 765 yards on 76 receptions. He has a total of 10 touchdowns, 7 rushing 3 receiving. On top of all that he has 0 fumbles this season, if he continues this through the last two weeks of the season he will join Barry Sanders and Marshall Faulk as the only players in NFL history with 2000 yards from scrimmage and no fumbles.

Tom Brady
Brady has continued doing Brady-like things this season. After an uncharacteristically slow start to the season he has rebounded and now has a passer rating of 99.8. He has thrown for 3,847 yards with 32 touchdowns. He has accounted for a total of 14 turnovers, 8 interceptions and 5 fumbles.. Additionally he has a completion percentage of 64.4% on 541 attempts. He has his team tied for the best record in the AFC at 11-3.

Antonio Brown
AB has been sensational this season. He leads the league in receptions(115) and targets(159), which gives him a ridiculous 72% catch rate. For comparison Larry Fitzgerald, widely considered to have some of the best hands in the NFL, had his highest rate in 2009 with a 63% catch rate on an average of 11.3 yards per completion. He seems to make an unbelievable catch look routine in every game he has played. Antonio Brown also leads the league in receiving yards with 1,498. His biggest black mark is that he ONLY has 11 touchdowns on the season which is 2 behind league leader Dez Bryant. He has also thrown a touchdown pass.

Andrew Luck
Luck is one of the bright young stars in the league and is already starting to look like one of the elite players at his position. He leads the league in both passing yards with 4,492 and passing touchdowns with 38. Luck has also added 268 yards and 3 touchdowns on the ground. He has a passer rating of 97.5. His main problem is that he has turned the ball over at an alarming rate with 14 interceptions and has put the ball on the ground 8 times. Another issue he has shown is his inability to beat quality opponents, with half of the Colts wins coming in the lowly AFC South.

Peyton Manning
Manning has been good for the majority of the season, however, the Broncos have recently switched to a more run heavy game plan. This could be due to Manning slowing down because of age, but it also could just be what was required to win games. Whatever the reason it has slowed Manning down a bit from his early season pace. All of that being said, he has still put up fantastic numbers throwing for 4,134 yards and 37 touchdowns for a passer rating of 106.4. He has thrown 11 interceptions and has fumbled 3 times. Manning currently has the Broncos tied with the Patriots with an 11-3 record. However, Tom Brady won the head to head match up, so they are sitting in second place.

Demarco Murray
Demarco Murray set the league on fire in the beginning of the season, rushing for over 100 yards the first 8 weeks of the season. He has cooled off a bit recently but is still racking up the yards. He has accumulated 1,687 yards on the ground and 395 yards through the air. He has 11 touchdowns, all of which have come when running the ball. He is averaging 4.8 yards per carry on his 351 attempts. He had a problem hanging on to the ball initially fumbling 5 times. He has been better about ball security lately as 4 of those fumbles came in the first 5 games.

Aaron Rodgers
Rodgers has been on fire since his famous R-E-L-A-X speech. Or he WAS on fire, until the Bills shut him down last Sunday. He has thrown for 3,837 yards with a 64% completion percentage and 35 touchdowns. He has thrown 5 interceptions and has 4 fumbles. He has added 255 yards and a touchdown on the ground. He has a QB rating of 105.8. What has been the most obvious trend with Rodgers has been how impressive he has been in wins and how horrible he was in losses. All of his interceptions have come in his losses to Seattle, New Orleans, and Buffalo. That means he has played 11 games where he didn't throw an interception, which is remarkable when you think about it.  He also had a clunker week 3 against Detroit where he only threw for 162 yards.

Tony Romo
Tony Romo is having a fantastic season of his own and yet has somehow stayed a bit more under the radar than these other guys. He was bitten by the injury bug in the middle of the season but is now fully recovered and is looking better than ever. His most impressive game might have been his last one against Philadelphia, who sold out to stop Murray and let Romo go for 265 and 3 TDs. On the season he has 3,188 yards and 28 touchdowns. He has thrown 8 interceptions and has a QB rating of 110.4. He has completed 69.3% of his 381 attempts.

J.J. Watt
Watt has 16.5 sacks, 11 batted passes, 3 forced fumbles, an interception which he returned 80 yards for a touchdown, a fumble returned for a touchdown, and three reception touchdowns. All of these numbers stand out even more when you realize he has done this while consistently facing double and triple teams. He has easily been the best defensive player in the league this season and probably the best overall player.



Now for my comments:
So, once again, why should J.J. Watt be the NFL MVP? Well, he shouldn't. I get the argument, this guy has been playing at a level we haven't seen from a defensive player since... well, ever. In fact, I initially sat down and started writing this intending to name him the MVP, but the more I thought about it, the more I started to disagree with that idea.  As I said above, he has probably been the best overall player this season. However, MVP doesn't stand for "best overall player." In fact, you could argue that all of these guys on this list are more worthy than Watt simply because they are all on teams likely heading to the playoffs. Watt just hasn't made enough of an impact to win more games, and that's all there is to it. It's unfortunate because I don't think any defensive player really has a chance to win nowadays. It is an offensive league and this whole experience is just more evidence of that.

Antonio Brown is having an MVP caliber season, seriously, watch the tape he has been that good. Unfortunately, I don't think Brown or Bell really has a chance to win, unless they put on some miraculous performance in their final two games. It would be interesting to see if it would change peoples perception if they weren't on the same team.

I don't think Romo deserves the award. He has been awesome this season, but has really taken a back seat to Demarco Murray. Speaking of Demarco, he would probably be #2 on my list. I would argue that his performance this year has been as good as 2012 Adrian Peterson. You know, the Vikings team that had Christain Ponder at quarterback and somehow made the playoffs. A lot of people predicted Dallas to be terrible this season and while I think Romo deserves some credit, it has been Murray and that offensive line that has made all the difference. He has allowed the Cowboys to dominate possession and keep their terrible defense off the field. Unfortunately, Romo will get more credit then he deserves and it will keep Demarco from having a shot at MVP.

Andrew Luck has turned it over too much to be the MVP, all there is to it. He is almost there. If you take away Luck from the Colts and they probably win 4 games at most, but only because they get the Jags and Titans twice. This kid is gonna be good.

Tom Brady and Peyton Manning have won a combined 5 out of the last 7 MVP awards. It is remarkable how dominant these two guys have been over the years. Manning has struggled recently which more than likely ended his MVP hunt, but what he has been able to do should not be understated. He lost his favorite TD maker, Orange Julius, for a majority of the season. Welker hasn't been the same this year after suffering his 30th concussion, or something like that. He is on his 3rd running back. Yet, he still put up good numbers. I would even argue that he is the reason the defense is so dominant against the run. He means an immense amount to this team. Brady's guys, on the other hand, have only been getting healthier and he has been on fire since that Kansas City game.  Not that it ever matters with Brady. Brady is so good he can make Brandon Lafell into a quality wide receiver. You're eyes do not deceive you, I said Brandon Lafell. If he had been able to go win in Green Bay than he would be the easy front runner for this award.

Which leads me to Rodgers. Aaron Rodgers has just been better than everyone this season. If I had a vote he gets it. Here is the reason why I think he deserves the MVP. In the Packers 11 wins, Rodgers has thrown 32 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. In their 3 losses, he has thrown 3 TDs and 5 interceptions. That is probably the most obvious way to distinguish how important Rodgers is to the Packers.  J.J. Watt has a good game against the Colts and yet the Texans still lost. The Buffalo Bills take away Aaron Rodgers and beat the Packers.When he plays well, they win. When he plays poorly, they lose. Simple as that. That's what it means to be the most valuable player.

College Football Playoffs

Here we are in late November, only a couple weeks away from Conference Championship weekend and it has become painfully obvious that things haven't really changed for college football. We finally started the playoff era, yet it seems like a lot of people are still dissatisfied with the new system. You can count me as one of those people. My main problem with the committee is that they are allowing public opinion to factor into their rankings instead of looking at what's really going on. Also, they don't seem to be applying the same criteria to each team. They have allowed style points to creep into the rankings and in some cases trump wins and losses. I get it, sometimes wins look ugly and losses look good. That's fine; all we ask is that if they want to do it that way, please be consistent.

SEC

You can't drop FSU in the rankings for beating a pretty good Miami team by only 4 points when the former number 1, Mississippi State, was within a touchdown of Arkansas two weeks prior and didn't move anywhere. Which begs the question, why does the committee think the SEC is still the dominant conference in the land? That distinction clearly belongs to the Pac-12, and it's not even close at this point. I don't understand how a 1-loss Alabama team leapfrogs an undefeated FSU and 1-loss Oregon team. Because they beat the all powerful Mississippi State? Florida, Illinois, Virginia, Indiana, Washington St...sorry, I was just naming a few teams with as many wins against top-25 opponents as Mississippi State. This is the problem with how the SEC schedules games, typically having a schedule with LSU, Texas A&M, and Auburn would be a daunting task. This year, however, Auburn is the only good team in that group and they're currently in a bit of a skid. This leaves the rest of the country without a way to gauge how these teams would perform against teams from other conferences, therefore, inflating the value of some conference wins that really weren't all that impressive. 

FSU

So for all you SEC fans out there that like to criticize other teams SOS, think twice before you bring up the quality of teams FSU has played this year. That being said, is anyone really confident in FSU after watching how they've performed this season? Don't get me wrong, 27 straight wins is nothing to scoff at, but they do not look like that dominant team that they were last year. Consequentially, the committee has docked them a few points and dropped them in the rankings a bit. Truthfully, I think this is more a testament to how good they were last year, rather than how poor they've looked this year. The whole country expected them to be this unstoppable juggernaut that would plow through inferior opponents and cruise to the playoffs. Well, here we are waiting for that team and week after week they simply scrape by unranked opponents. At this point, it's time to give up that dream and look at them for what they really are. A good team that finds a way to win every week; something that no other Power 5 conference team can claim. The good news is, if they keep winning there is no way they will be kept out of the playoffs. Which means we either see them lose to a lesser team and everyone will claim to be the guy that predicted their fall from grace, or they continue to win and we all get to see how they perform in the playoff against good opponents. Honestly, I kind of hope they lose to the Gators next week. Partly due to the fact that I'm 100% biased towards the Gators, but also so the FSU fans will shut up about their crazy paranoia that everyone is out to get them (which I guess is also due to the fact that I'm 100% biased towards the Gators). Seriously though, that's what the media does, they look for dirt and make a huge issue out of it. That's what generates clicks nowadays. At some point you have to look at the situation and consider that if Jameis wasn't always getting caught doing idiotic things, the media wouldn't have anything to cover. 

Oregon

The good news is all of these extra stories aren't going to affect Winston's chance to take home the Heisman. He took care of that with his play on the field. I believe it's Marcus Mariota's trophy to lose. Really though, this kid has been playing out of his mind all season, he just seems to always make the right decision. In fact, if the committee were truly going off style points and "game control" then Oregon is the far away clear choice for #1. With impressive wins over 4 current top-25 teams, in my opinion, they have the strongest résumé in the country. I know what you're thinking. Yes, this is still Oregon and, yes, every time we think they have finally put it all together they end up losing to some terrible team and send their whole season down the drain. That's where this season is different! They've already tried to throw it all away with their loss to Arizona. Little did they know, Arizona is good this year! So, despite their best efforts we will more than likely get to see a dangerous Oregon team in the playoff. Unless they lose to Oregon state, then forget everything I just said. 

TCU vs. Baylor

Finally, this whole TCU vs. Baylor thing that is going on... The committee has been told to take conference champions into account when making their decisions, so I don't see how it's conceivably possible that the Big 12 wants to name Baylor and TCU co-champions. They have the same record, but Baylor beat TCU, therefore, Baylor is the champion. It's not that complicated. Hopefully, one of them loses in the next couple weeks so we don't even have to worry about the controversy that arises when one team gets in over the other.

Which leads me to naming my preferred playoff teams: Oregon, FSU, Alabama, and Baylor. I think these 4 teams most deserve the chance to play in the big game. However, as we have all seen this committee is illogical and unpredictable so the most deserving teams won't always be the ones who get in. With that in mind, I'd like to send my early congratulations to the Florida Gators, who by beating the #3 ranked Seminoles next week, saved the world and find themselves in the top 4, where they eventually go on to win the national championship!

What? It could happen.

The Washington Football Club

Let's face it, the Washington Redskins' carousel of QBs is a joke. RGIII cost them about 5,000 draft picks (you might want to check my numbers on that) and has looked terrible since his sophomore season. You have Kirk Cousins who looks like Joe Montana one week and Mark Sanchez, the Jets version, the next. And finally, Colt McCoy, a career backup whose most memorable moment in the NFL is getting destroyed by James Harrison. 

Now, as for RGIII, remember when he was the guy? Yeah, not many people do. He was extremely hyped after his first season and then he suffered that terrible injury in the playoffs which has thrown his career off track. I decided to go and look back over that first season and realized all the hype was over some generally mediocre production. I know, I know...in no way is a 20:5 TD/interception ratio mediocre. However, when you count his 12 fumbles, he had a total of 17 turnovers on the season. Considering one of the biggest reasons people picked him as the ROY over Luck was that he only threw 5 interceptions, it was a surprise that the turnover difference wasn't all that large. Also, it's interesting to note 8 of those 20 touchdowns came in two games, and Matt Flynn has proven even terrible QBs can have big games. Now all of this isn't to say that RGIII was a terrible quarterback that first year. He was a rookie adjusting to the speed of the NFL so mistakes were made, but a majority of the time he was quite exciting to watch. At the same time, in no way was he as phenomenal as people made him out to be. 

The point I am trying to make here is that RGIII hasn't really looked the part of quarterback of the future in Washington. However, if I were them I would let this season play out with him as my QB. This would allow them to gather a larger sample size in the new scheme to really see what he can do. What else are they gonna do, let Colt McCoy play? Wait, that's exactly what the fans want. That's ridiculous. I get that he came off the bench and beat Tennessee and then went into Dallas and beat them but, really, Colt McCoy? If you say that RGIII has looked terrible in the past then you don't want to see what this guy did in Cleveland. If anything I would be upset that Colt won those two games and ruined the chance of getting a higher draft pick. Anyways, haven't they been down this road before with a different backup QB? Remember week 3 when Kirk Cousins was the better QB for Jay Gruden's offensive system? We thought RGIII might not even get the chance to win the starting spot back and then by week 4, everyone was asking where Robert Griffin was. It just feels like we will see the same thing happen with Colt. 

I have never understood why fans think that career backups can come in and consistently perform like a starter. If the guy had the talent to make it as a starter then someone somewhere probably would have seen it. Look at Josh McCown, everyone has known for years he is simply a backup caliber quarterback and that was fine, it worked. Then he had to go and perform well in Chicago for a stretch of games and suddenly everyone thinks that Tampa Bay won't be that bad this year because they finally have a decent quarterback. It's funny how these things turn out. The career backup is playing like a career backup? I know, shocking. People need to stop with the whole idea that they pay for tickets so they should get to decide who plays, blah, blah blah. Last I checked, most fans are not trained NFL talent scouts, therefore they should probably leave the personnel decisions to the professionals...

Which leads me to my point, if the fans weren't calling for RGIII's head, we wouldn't even be having this discussion. Plain and simple, no matter how frustrating it is, you don't give away your entire future in draft picks for a guy just to bench him two games after coming off an injury; it just doesn't make sense. Unfortunately, the NFL is a "what have you done for me recently" league so for now Colt McCoy is the golden boy and RGIII is the ugly red-headed step sister. 

Just remember Redskins fans, be careful what you wish for.