OP-ED: Who Should Win NFL MVP?

By Jose Rohdin

With the NFL MVP being the most prestigious award in the sport, it is usually hotly contested. Last year, Patrick Mahomes was clearly the front-runner, and there was no debate after he won. Mahomes looked lie he was primed and ready to again win the award this year, but after a knee injury has kind of taken him out the debate. However, with only playing eight games, he still has some insane stats, having 2,808 yards, 19 TDs and a rating of 110.0 on the season. It would have been amazing to see if he could have matched his last year stats, and win the MVP again, but that doesn’t look likely.

First, let’s talk about the real only none QB option, Christian McCaffrey. He looked like an NFL running back to me, but other people didn’t see it. He was the future of the NFL and could do everything a modern  running back can do, and right now, he might be the best. McCaffrey has primarily been a walking offense this year. At the moment, he leads the NFL in scrimmage yards with 1576 and touchdowns with 14. To focus specifically on his rushing, McCaffery is rushing about 19.9 times per game but is averaging 105.9 per game, along with an average of 5.3 per rush. On the receiving end, he has had 59 receptions with 517 yards, and has been used in multiple pass packages out wide, and not just running routes from the backfield. 

Next, let’s talk about the QBs, and the names that seem to stand out are Dak Prescott, Deshaun Watson, Kirk Cousins, Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, and Russell Wilson. Lamar Jackson and Russell Wilson are the real front-runners of this race. But I still should shed some light on possible candidates, and those are Dak Prescott, Deshaun Watson, and Kirk Cousins. 

Dak Prescott has just appeared out of no where into the MVP race, taking over Aaron Rodgers’s place, who has been struggling. He did throw 463 yards against the Green Bay Packers but lost 34-24, and 397 yards against the Minnesota Vikings in a 28-24 loss. For the rest of his games, three of his games are below 250 yards. A lot his yards comes from when he is losing and is required to throw the ball, or just against bad secondary, but to be honest, it is both. No one can tell me that the Giants, Packers, Vikings, and Lions have above-average secondary. This kind of brings Prescott’s entire season into perspective and does add him into the upper echelon in the MVP race. 

Kirk Cousins is a person who has only recently made his way into the MVP debate. What we know about Cousins is that he doesn’t make too many mistakes. He has shown that he can take over games and dominant, such as against the Detroit Lions in week 7, in which he had 337 yards and 4 TDs. Just like with Prescott, he does dominate teams that he is supposed to, but he did just dominant against the Broncos, who have a great defense, for 319 yards and 3 TDs. This is a much more impressive victory than any of Prescott’s. On the other hand, Cousins played poorly at the start of the season or at least wasn’t trusted early on. He pretty much was shut out against the Chicago Bears in week 4, and in week 1, he only attempted 10 passes for the entire game. The only saving grace for the  Vikings is their running game, and what they do off the run. The Vikings are leading the NFL in play-action passes at 35.7%, letting Cousins have more time in the pocket and let the receivers routes play out. So because of that, is he even really the MVP of his team, or is it Dalvin Cook? That question alone takes Cousin out of the conversation. 

For the next MVP candidate, I will simply start with the fact that Lamar Jackson is fantastic, and we possibly may have never seen anything like what he is doing now. He rushed a total of 116 times this season, and that has led to 781 yards and 6 TDs. Jackson’s completion percentage has gone up from last year’s 7 games started. He has improved 58.2% up to 66.3%. This is one of the most important things he could have done in the offseason. If an NFL defense is not scared of your arm, there is honestly no reason for you to be on the field as a starting QB. Let’s just look at last year’s Ravens playoff game against the Los Angeles Chargers to give an example of why Jackson’s throwing development has made him a better player. In the game, the Chargers would consistently play 8 defensive-backs, and drop them into zone and take away every part of the field. The three rushes would just play a contain scheme at the line of scrimmage, not allowing Jackson to move in the pocket or run. It worked, and Jackson only had 194 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT, and a horrible 48.3 completion percentage. He also only ran nine times for only 54 yards and no score. The Chargers essentially showed the plan to everyone how to beat Jackson, and that was making him throw.

If I had to be an NFL defensive coordinator, I would have nightmares for weeks about the beat down Jackson will give my team. He can do it in any way he wants. With that, when it has been a big game, Lamar Jackson has risen to the occasion. He played against the New England Patriots, the number one defense in the NFL, and had 163 passing yards, 1 TD, 61 rushing yards, and 2 rushing TDs. Jackson would lead his team to victory 37-20. He would also play against Watson last week and pretty much go off on them, throwing 4 TDs and winning 41-7. Jackson would go against Mahomes and would not have his best game, but late in the game would give the Ravens a chance to win, even though they would lose 33-28. Finally, he would beat Russell Wilson, 30-16 while not having a good passing game, but he would rush 14 times for 116 yards and a TD. With all this said, he can’t be the MVP just yet. So far this season, his defense has only allowed more than 23 points twice, and both times the Ravens lost. This helps Jackson a lot as he knows the other team most likely isn’t going to score more than 20 points in a game, so he can take chances because he knows his defense has his back.

Russell Wilson is terrific, he is magical when he plays football. Wilson is just a small artist with the ball escaping pressure and throwing darts 4o yards off his back foot. So let’s talk about Wilson’s stats, at this moment he has 2737 yards, 23 TDs, only 2 INTs, and a completion rate of 68.5%. He is leading the NFL with 23 TDs and leading the NFL in QBR  at 114.9, the highest QBR you can get is 158.3. His pass interception rate is only 0.6%, which is lowest in the NFL, and first in passing TD rate with 7.0%. Even though he is only 14 in passing yards, you have to look at the whole scheme of the Seattle Seahawks, they just want to run the ball. The Seahawks as a team attempted only 327 passes this season and have elected to run the ball 307 times. They are a team that predicates their game on being an even run-pass team, and they do an excellent job at that. They are 5th in the NFL in rush attempts and 23rd in pass attempts. So also though he is at a scheme disadvantage, he is still putting up those numbers, which is insane. However, this isn’t even the most impressive stat that Wilson has right now. Right now, the Seahawks have a beautiful 8-2 record and are one game behind the San Francisco 49ers, who are 9-1, in the NFC West.

The Seahawks are a playoff team, and some people even say a top 5 team in the NFL, but it is all because of Wilson. Russell Wilson leads the NFL in comeback wins, with 4, and he has 5 game-winning drives. That is all Wilson, and no one else on that team, Wilson single handily has won the team 5 games, meaning their record without him is 3-7. That is why he is MVP because his team isn’t that good, but they are 8-2. It is all on Wilson’s shoulder, and he has stepped up and dominated. The defense of the Seahawks is ranked 23 in points with allowing 254 and ranked 25 in yards allowing 3,729. To put that in perspective, the Seahawks have only scored 21 more points than opponents and only 162 more yards than the teams they face. And the Seahawks offense is ranked 7th in points and 4th in yards. Wilson is the MVP because he is having a fantastic season, and if he weren’t there, his team would be in the middle of tanking to get a high draft pick. Wilson is the reason his team wins games, and that makes him the NFL’s MVP.