MVP?

Instead of waiting until the middle of the offseason like some sports (baseball) the NFL announced the 2008 MVP yesterday and the winner in a landslide - Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts. Manning wins his third MVP award of his career tying him with another QB, Brett Favre for the most all-time.

The MVP is normally given out to the best player on the best team or the player who is deemed to be indispensible to their squad. In other words if you removed player X from the team would that team collapse.

Arguably, the two best teams this season were the Titans and Giants. The Giants didn't have any "stand-out" performances this year and are winning as a team, much like last year's Super Bowl champions. The Titans have one player who made the list, a rookie running back, who didn't win the offensive rookie of the year award, but gets an MVP vote over the player that did. So if the best player on the best team isn't winning the award that leaves us with the most indispensibe.

We'll examine the top 3 finishers in voting;

3. Michael Turner, Atlanta Falcons running back. Turner signs in the off-season as a free agent with the Falcons because he wanted a chance to be the "man" after backing up LT in San Diego. He will get his chance because the Falcons were a terrible team that needed help in every area. The Falcons turn the franchise around by hiring a fresh faced GM and coach and drafting a QB who nobody thought was the smart pick and turns out to be a steady, strong armed game manager who wins the rookie of the year. Turner ends up finishing second in rushing on the season and the Falcons make the playoffs. Now Turner was obviously a key member of the team, but if the Falcons had Jerious Norwood and Warrick Dunn running the ball would they have been worse off? The real MVP of the Falcons was Matt Ryan. If he doesn't play well under centre, the Falcons are not a playoff team and might have been drafting right behind the Lions in April.

2. Chad Pennington, Miami Dolphins quarterback. The player who finishes second in MVP voting didn't even have a team just weeks before the season. Pennington who was battling for the starting QB job with the New York Jets was cut in August to make room for Brett Favre. No one could argue that at the time, it seemed like the right move. Pennington was immediately scooped up by the Dolphins to try and breath some life into the team that went 1-15 the year before and went through 7 starting QB's. This is a player that has become indispensible to his team. Without him the Dolphins would have been forced to play unproven QBs and changed them every couple of weeks like the SF 49ers did. He is a leader who has been to the playoffs before and knew what it took to get a team to follow him.

1. Peyton Manning, Indianapolis Colts, quarterback. After missing training camp because of off season knee surgery, Manning returned week one and struggled and the Colts lost. It took him and the Colts to mid-point of the season before the Colts found their way. Once he did, the Colts took off and finished the season on a 9 game winning streak. Manning didn't finish statisically anywhere near the top in the major passing catagories, but everyone thinks that if you take Manning off the field and replace him with back-up Jim Sorgi the Colts stand no chance of winning - therefore making him indispensible and making Manning the MVP. On paper that looks like a good argument, but the best comparison might be the team this actually happened to this year - the New England Patriots. MVP QB Tom Brady gets hurt in the opening minutes of the first game of the season and unproven back-up QB Matt Cassel must play the entire season. After week 1 many pundits didn't give the Pats a chance to win. Cassel who had been learning the Pats offense for the past few season while on the bench, leads the Pats to 11 wins and unfortunately for them are only the second team to ever win 11 games and not make the playoffs. The Colts would be in a similiar circumstance if Manning got hurt. Jim Sorgi would lead the offense. He has been learning the Colts schemes for too many seasons not to be productive. Although he wouldn't be Manning, he could lead the Colts to the playoffs and similar results. So is Manning really the MVP?

My MVP voting card would have looked like the following;
1. Chad Pennington
2. Adrian Peterson
3. Matt Ryan

Egad...can't believe I just named Chad Pennington MVP of the NFL...

Here is how the AP voted...

Player Team Votes
Peyton Manning Colts 32
Chad Pennington Dolphins 4
Michael Turner Falcons 4
Adrian Peterson Vikings 3
James Harrison Steelers 3
Philip Rivers Chargers 2
Chris Johnson Titans 1
Kurt Warner Cardinals 1