Happy New Year and welcome to the first Corner of 2022. I’m overstocked with MVP candidates but cutting down on the NFL award watch list. Also, I would be remiss not to mention the college football playoffs. Enjoy.
MVP rankings:
Josh Allen
Aaron Rodgers
Justin Herbert
Jonathan Taylor
T5. Patrick Mahomes
T5. Joe Burrow
The MVP race is going to end in a mess. Let’s be honest with each other, lots of players have a strong case, but no one has a dominant one.
Aaron Rodgers has been stellar, but he plays on a loaded team with little pressure on him to carry the group. Patrick Mahomes has been outstanding the last seven weeks, but he was mediocre at best for the first half of the season.
Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert and Josh Allen have carried their respective teams through basically every win. They’ve also had some major duds in important games. Jonathan Taylor… well… he’s a running back.
Enough said, unfortunately.
I don’t even have Tom Brady, Matt Stafford or Dak Prescott on this list. Players who have had remarkable seasons but would be penalized for any of the reasons listed above.
All that being said, the rankings (should) demonstrate a balance between value and outstanding performance.
Allen is No. 1 because, in my humble estimation, he has been the QB with the best performance-to-value ratio. Herbert and Burrow are more valuable to their teams, but they haven’t played as well as Allen has throughout the course of the season. Rodgers has played better than those three, but he is less valuable to his team.
Taylor has arguably the most value to his team and has been the best running back in the NFL… since Derrick Henry got hurt. Unfortunately for his MVP candidacy, the Colts have increasingly tried to put the ball in Carson Wentz’s hands, even though that seems to hurt the Colts more than it helps them.
The final weekend of the regular season should be steeped with MVP implications. Burrow won’t play, Herbert and Taylor will be presented with win-and-in situations, Allen could lead the Bills as high as the No. 2 seed in the AFC and Mahomes could possibly give the Chiefs the No. 1 spot. Needless to say, week 17 will be interesting.
NFL awards
Offensive Player of the Year (OPOY): Jonathan Taylor, Cooper Kupp
Defensive Player of the Year (DPOY): T.J. Watt, Darius Leonard, Myles Garrett
Offensive Rookie of the Year (OROY): Rashawn Slater, Ja’Marr Chase
Defensive Rookie Of the Year (DROY): Micah Parsons
Coach Of the Year (COY): Kyle Shanahan, Bill Belichick, Frank Reich
Comeback Player Of the Year (CPOY): Dak Prescott
You might have noticed that certain awards have fewer candidates.
I’m trimming the fat, so to speak. With one week left in the regular season, I’m eliminating players who don’t have a real shot at the award.
Taylor and Cooper Kupp are miles ahead of everyone else for OPOY. Micah Parsons is so far in front of other defensive rookies he will most likely earn some DPOY votes while winning DROY. Mac Jones has played well, but is probably out of the running for OROY in comparison to Rashawn Slater and Ja’Marr Chase. Dak Prescott has been the only candidate in my CPOY rankings for a long time and for good reason.
T.J. Watt is one sack shy of breaking Michael Strahan’s single-season record.
With the Browns out of playoff contention and Darius Leonard out due to injury, Watt sits in the catbird seat. Another great game and he could win his first ever Defensive Player of the Year award and be the first Steeler to win it since Troy Polamalu in 2010.
Bill Belichick hasn’t won the Coach of the Year award in a while, but his job this year has been masterful, getting the Patriots to the playoffs with the potential to win the division.
College Football Playoff
So much for upsets.
Georgia ran Michigan out of Hard Rock Stadium after Alabama beat Cincinnati conivingly in Jerryworld. Neither of those two outcomes were surprising.
On paper, Michigan has nowhere near the talent that Georgia has, and the same can be said doubly so for UC and Alabama. Hopefully, the cynics who (wrongly) crow about how G5 teams can’t hope to compete will have viewed the Cotton Bowl as just the opposite.
Cincinnati took it to the Crimson Tide.
The Bearcat defense shut down this year’s Heisman winner, Bryce Young, and a highly touted group of wide receivers, to under 200 yards through the air. Alabama relied upon its hogs up front, the likes of which Cincinnati hadn’t seen yet. Brian Robinson Jr. rushed 25 times for a whopping 198 yards to carry the Tide’s offense.
There was never a question as to whether or not Bama would win the game.
The final score, 27-6, demonstrates that fact. But Cincinnati had two drops in the endzone. The game could easily have been 27-14, but the final score would have made it feel very different. The Bearcats also had two breakdowns in the backend that led to Alabama touchdowns. An upset would have been nearly impossible but if a few things broke Cincy’s way, we might have seen a Cotton Bowl for the ages.
Of course, that’s the other problem — Georgia and Alabama are the most talented teams in college football and it isn’t very close.
As Kirby Smart said earlier in the season, “You can’t out-coach players,” and that fact was demonstrated in both CFP games. Ohio State, Notre Dame, Oklahoma State, Baylor and Utah would have fared no better against the Tide or Bulldogs. But recruiting and talent accumulation are a topic for another day.
Georgia looked like the best team in the nation until they faced Alabama.
Alabama has looked beatable, but still one of the best, for the entire season. The two meet again with the national championship on the line. Stetson Bennett against Bryce Young, Brian Robinson against one of the most formidable defensive fronts college football has seen in a long time. And, of course, Nick Saban versus Kirby Smart.
This should be fun.
