The
NFL has just surpassed the midpoint of the 2024 season and though there are a
whole lot of highly skillful and talented players leaguewide, there are always
going to be a few players that separate themselves from the rest of the pack in
the MVP race. This is where we now find
ourselves in the NFL as we close in on week 10 of the season. In this article I will be advocating for
every individual player’s case for why they should be this year’s MVP, but also
why they may not end up winning the award.
Where we stand as of now the media has spoken of the obvious choices
such as Washington’s rookie quarterback, Jayden Daniels, Jared Goff of the
Detroit Lions, Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, and of course last years MVP Lamar
Jackson. I know that this is the top
five odds on favorites to win said award, however there is one more person that
I think we should strongly take into consideration. That person would be the only non-quarterback
in the MVP race, thus making it the most difficult to come away with the
award.
Derrick Henry-
I
think we can all agree on one thing when it comes to the Baltimore Ravens
running back. I believe we can all agree
on the fact that if anyone deserves to be in the MVP discussion among those top
tier players and outside of the QB position it should most certainly be this man,
Derrick Henry. What Derrick Henry has
been able to do this season is insane. I
have known for a bunch of years now, much like others that he is more than your
average running back. He does have that
traditional style of play in terms of being an uphill runner plus he doesn’t
really get too involved in passing downs.
That’s perfectly fine with me though, we don’t need to see him do
anything else other than continue to be a complete beast of a runner. Henry will bulldoze his way right through any
defender with his 6’3”, 247lb frame. Its
almost as though you are a linebacker waiting for a handoff to the runner to
come up the gut and all the sudden you see a mack truck of a man coming at you
while running at full speed. Someone his
size should be on the defense playing as an edge rusher or linebacker.
Now let me talk about statistics
for a moment. “King” Henry has already
amassed 1,100 total rushing yards on the season, is averaging over 6 yards, (6.1
ypc) along with leading the NFL in rushing touchdowns (12 tds). Oh, I forgot to mention the fact that he is
also averaging 112.0 yards a game (2nd to Barkley) plus leads the
league in 49 first down runs. This
30-year-old runner has not lost a step at all from what I can see. People were slightly concerned if he would
fit into the Ravens offensive scheme and to that I laugh. Come on, was that a legitimate concern? It’s a 6’3” man running the ball, just hand
it to him and watch him work. Jerry
Jones, Owner of the Dallas Cowboys, recently told his local radio station that
he doesn’t believe Henry would be having the breakout season that he is, had
Jerry signed Henry to the Cowboys in the offseason. That’s also laughable, come on, I know that
their offense is ran differently and the Cowboys offensive line is really bad
this season, but do you really need top tier blocking for a man that size? He basically becomes his own blocker while
he’s running 4 men over on each carry.
Derrick Henry is currently on
pace to beat not only his own personal best yardage mark (2,027 yds) but also
the all-time single season rushing record of 2,105 yards. However, when you take a closer look at his
competition, it is unusual for a player outside of the quarterback position to
win this award. How unusual do you ask? Well,
I did some research and noticed that the MVP has mostly been won by QBs over
any other position in the history of the sport.
In fact, the last time a non-quarterback won it, you’d have to go back
to the 2012 season, though in a surprising twist it was a running back (Adrian
Peterson). Facts are facts, over the
last quarter of a century the QB has dominated the MVP award, winning 22 times,
while only 4 running backs have come away with it. The running backs that have won this
prestigious honor in that span of time are Marshall Faulk, Shaun Alexander,
LaDainian Tomlinson, and Adrian Peterson.
With that being said, the odds are certainly stacked against Henry. I wouldn’t say it is completely out of the
question, but I think if he is going to climb into the top 3 favorites to win,
he most definitely will need to beat Eric Dickerson’s rushing record.
Jayden Daniels-
This
LSU alumni is the real deal, the things that he has done so far in this, his
rookie season, are second to none. Last
year we saw a rookie quarterback do things that you just aren’t used to seeing
a rookie be able to do in the Texans QB, C.J. Stroud. We all told ourselves that this just wouldn’t
be able to happen again. Long behold, we
are now back-to-back years of seeing the most amazing rookie quarterback play
the NFL has ever seen. In a way it is to
the same tune as what Stroud was able to do last season given the fact that
Houston hadn’t made a playoff appearance in a handful of years (2019) prior to C.J
being drafted to Houston. Washington is
currently in first place in the NFC east and is seeking their first playoff
appearance since the 2020 season, which is the same amount of time (4 seasons)
Houston had gone without a postseason game.
Another good comparison would be the fact that Stroud was somewhat
overlooked in the 2023 NFL draft in that many believed that Bryce Young would
be the better QB coming out of college, which is why he was the first overall
pick of that draft class. Stroud ended
up being the second overall pick just like Jayden Daniels was in this past NFL
draft. A lot of people believed the
number one pick of the 2024 class Caleb Willams would be the best quarterback
coming out. Caleb has been doing well
for the Bears, but what Daniels is doing is simply astounding.
Jayden
looked very impressive in his LSU days as a Tiger, no doubt about it. If you asked me if he would be accumulating
these groundbreaking rookie records or any records in general, I would’ve
probably told you to slow down.
Washington’s rookie quarterback looks to possibly break the all-time
completion percentage record for a single season. He already has a few records under his belt, one
of which belonged to Tom Brady prior to week four when Daniels set a record for
the highest completion percentage through the first four games of a season with
a minimum of 75 pass attempts (82.1%).
You may be thinking wow it only took four games for him to break a
record, that is crazy. Well, it only
took the Commanders new QB three games to set a record, when the rookie managed
to finish a game with a completion percentage rate of 91.3% (21-for-23). That’s an NFL single game rookie record. Another impressive feat for Jayden was
becoming the only player in NFL history to pass for at least 1,000 yards while
also rushing for a minimum of 250 yards in his first five career games.
This rookie
has certainly out played the “rookie” title and already become an elite passer
at the NFL level at only 23 years old. A
lot of this can probably be chalked up to the fact that he did play over 50
career games (53 games) at the collegiate level, something we don’t see as a
normality. The Commanders have
completely turned things around with this offense and the trajectory of this
team starting with this season. They
seem to be a true playoff contender and may surprise some teams in this
upcoming postseason. Washington is
currently ranked 11th in passing, 3rd in rushing, and 3rd
in overall offense. This quarterback
also has the Commanders 3rd in the league in points per game (29.2)
with only Detroit and Baltimore being better.
Daniels has thrown for 1,945 yards (13th), 9 touchdowns
(Tied-19th), while only throwing 2 interceptions. His accuracy along with completion percentage
has been the story thus far and through the first 9 weeks of the season he has
posted a completion percentage of 71.5% (3rd), has a QBR of 75.7 (2nd),
along with a passer rating of 106.7 (5th).
Enough
has been said to plead the case for this immensely talented rookie should
widely be considered in the MVP discussions.
Just place a football in his hands and you’re likely to come away with
10-12 wins, maybe even more. The poise,
smarts, and skills he plays with is second to none as a rookie and he will only
continue to grow over the next handful of years. Washington won the competition of the best
team in the NFC East in the long run.
The only thing that I can say to shoot down his possible MVP dreams is
that I don’t know if it would be possible for them to reward him with both
Rookie of the Year and the MVP awards in the same season. To my knowledge this has never been done
before and for this reason I think he will likely only receive the ROTY title
this year. There are already at least
five others that also have quite compelling arguments to be named MVP so having
a rookie in there as well would make it a little too crowded in my opinion.
Jared Goff-
Where
do I start with Goff? Ever since the
Detroit Lions brought Jared Goff in via the famous trade that swapped him with
ex-Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford, the Lions have been progressively
ascending each year with him at the helm.
Nothing against Stafford, in fact the Rams have only gotten better as
well. The Rams were instantly better off
as they won the Super Bowl their first season with Stafford, while the Lions
have slowly been gaining steam continuously ever since they got Goff. Detroit took more of a methodical approach to
not only get to the top, but to make sure they can consistently stay atop the
division as well as the National Conference by building around Goff using draft
picks and carefully scouting. The Rams
on the other hand choose to use trades along with free agency signings to
attempt the same. The Lions offense is
one of the most potent in the entire league and is pretty much at the top of
every statistical category this season.
If not for Jared Goff I’m not sure that they would be as much of a
powerhouse as they have been.
The
Lions signal caller currently has them first in the NFC North division. This may be the toughest division in football
as they must compete with both the Minnesota Vikings and the Green Bay Packers. Plus, the Lions are number one in their
entire conference and are only one game from the Kansas City Chiefs in being
the best team in all of football. Their
7-1 record is the best that the Detroit Lions franchise has ever seen in their
respective history. The last time the
Lions finished a season with two or fewer losses dated back to 1957.
Detroit
is on pace to break a bunch of records this season. The Lions just beat the Green Bay Packers
last week and in doing so they accomplished a feat that hasn’t been done since
1986. They beat the Packers three
straight times in Green Bay which hadn’t happened since 1986-1988. Jared Goff himself has also done some
impressive things this season like when he completed 100% of his passes in a
primetime game back in week four against Seattle, completing 18 of 18 passes,
threw for 292 yards along with 2 touchdowns and caught a touchdown. Two weeks ago, the Lions rolled all over a
bad Tennessee Titans team and in the process, Goff made NFL history even though
he only threw for 85 yards in the contest.
During this game he completed 12 of 15 passes and threw 3 touchdowns
without a turnover, this made him the only quarterback to throw at least 2
touchdowns in five consecutive games while completing a minimum of 72% of his
passes with a QB rating over 110.0.
Another cool thing for the Lions in this game was that this was only the
fourth time in their history that they scored 50 or more points in a regular
season game.
The
presence of Goff is shown by how elite this team is and that they are basically
unstoppable. Sure, they have the best
one-two punch in the running game, well maybe second best to Lamar and Henry,
but in terms of running backs they have the best. Aside from their running game, Jared’s
fingerprints are on everything else they have going for them. The offense is putting up 369.6 yards a game
(7th), they rank 1st overall in points per game (32.3),
Goff is top ten in touchdown passes (14 tds), 2nd in passer rating
(115.0) and is currently 1st in completion percentage. What has been the most impressive part of
this team is really the accuracy of Jared Goff.
As I said he is currently leading the NFL in completion percentage at an
amazing rate of 74.9% and if he somehow manages to continue this, he will wind
up setting an all-time season record for completion percentage. In NFL history there have only been 21
quarterbacks that ended an NFL season with a 70% or above completion percentage
for their average. I think that the only
thing that may hold him back from possibly winning the MVP this year is that he
hasn’t really had flashy numbers this season.
Yes, his completion percentage and accuracy are supremely off the
charts, but his yardage and touchdown totals may wind up holding him back when
compared to say players like Lamar Jackson or Josh Allen.
Patrick Mahomes-
No
need to really spend a lot of time on this guy.
He is the only guy that can be proclaimed as a sure-fire hall of famer
while still under 30 years old (29).
Kansas City’s offense has seemed to have taken a step back over the past
two seasons now, while still managing to win super bowls in the process of
dealing with these offensive issues. I
guess when you have the trio of Mahomes, Kelce, with the mind of Andy Reid as
your Head Coach that will automatically solve all issues in the long run. It worked last year so who’s to say it can’t
again this year. Anyhow Mahomes is
winning games. He isn’t exactly top of
the charts in numbers this year, but they continue to extend their winning
streak without chalking an L in the loss column.
Chiefs
QB may be the best we’ve ever seen play at that position while also possibly
the most entertaining in league history.
Many may refer to him as a living legend or G.O.A.T and you cannot take
that away from him. What you can take
away from him is top level options to throw to like his old teammate Tyreek
Hill, who has obviously moved on to the Miami Dolphins. You can also take away his top two wideouts
going into this season, Marquise Brown who went down to a shoulder injury, and
Rashee Rice who was incidentally injured by Mahomes himself in a freak accident
in week two. All of this is my way of
showing why he hasn’t necessarily excelled in statistics this season while, yet
they are continuing to win games in any way that they can find.
Mahomes
best statistic this season is that he has led his Kansas City Chiefs to a
perfect 8-0 record. He is also ranked 5th
among all quarterbacks in completion percentage boasting 69.9%, that’s pretty dang
good if you ask me. He’s been throwing
passes to the likes of a rookie receiver, a couple of unknown tight ends, a
running back or two, and Travis Kelce.
The Chiefs did bring in superstar wideout DeAndre Hopkins prior to the
trade deadline plus they resigned Juju Smith-Schuster before he got hurt a few
weeks ago. This should undoubtedly help
boost Mahomes’ numbers over the second half of the season, thus upping his
chances of maybe winning the MVP. He is
currently 6th in quarter back rating (69.2).
What
may hold Mahomes back from his chances of an MVP season could be that his
numbers don’t look as impressive as Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson’s by the end of
the year. As of now they are mediocre at
best with 11 passing touchdowns and 9 interceptions. Though the Mahomes led Chiefs are currently
unbeaten, they also haven’t played any elite teams other than their week one
Matchup against the Ravens. On top of
that they really haven’t had any decisive type of wins while winning against
the bad and middling teams that they have played this season. Lastly, in my opinion although Mahomes is a
great player it has been proven that their defense has once again been the
story of their team for their second consecutive season.
Josh Allen-
One
of the most talented QBs that the NFL has ever seen is the Buffalo Bills signal
caller. Josh Allen has God given
abilities mixed with a frame that can take the punishment of a linebacker. He is a great dual threat quarterback that
can evade the rush while under pressure in the pocket and when he chooses to
take off, he can run people over and at times have even been known to hurdle
defenders. Frankly, it is a bit of a
surprise that Allen has yet to win an MVP award. Allen has constantly been one
of the best quarterbacks in the league while consistently being brought up in
the MVP discussions for each of the last three seasons now. He hasn’t yet won this prized award partly
because his MVP nominations have had him running up against two of the last
three MVPs in Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes. That is an unbelievably difficult task for
anyone to achieve against such greatness.
Josh
Allen has enough talent such as many great quarterbacks do to make up for the
lack of talent the roster around him may not possess at times. That was the case for this Buffalo Bills team
early this season. I am not saying that
they don’t have talent, but they certainly didn’t have any superstars, all pro
elite kind of players coming into this year.
They decided to trade the one player that you could place into that
classification of talent last offseason.
In any matter, Allen has got the Bills off to a great start this season leading
them to a 7-2 record while they are sitting in first place in the AFC East. Buffalo made a huge move to help Allen in the
pass game by deciding to make a move before the deadline in the form of trading
for one of the best receivers in the league by picking up Amari Cooper of the
Cleveland Browns.
Buffalo’s
QB may not be a top 5 passer in yards as of right now (10th) but he
has thrown 17 touchdowns at the midpoint of the season which has him tied for 4th
in pass tds. He has looked much better
this year, compared to his last couple seasons and is currently in 6th
in passer rating (105.8) plus Allen has notched a quarterback rating of 73.2 (4th). Though their total offensive yardage and
passing yardage totals are not that of a top five team they do rank 4th
in points (28.9 ppg). At the end of the
day scoring points should be the number one statistic, right? The more points you score the more wins your
team should accrue. Though, If I am going to point to any one
thing about Josh Allen or his team to advocate his MVP case for this season it
would honestly have to be one thing. The
one crucial thing I can speak of for Allen has been the maturity and growth in
his decision making. If you look at any
other season he has played, he has always turned the ball over at a high
rate. So far this year he has only thrown
2 interceptions and is tied with Lamar Jackson, and the rookie Jayden Daniels
as the only other starting quarterbacks that have played every game this year
(Flacco has 2 ints in 5 games). If the
Bills continue to win their games and Josh Allen continues to play at the high
level, he’s been playing at I only see maybe Lamar Jackson as his only
roadblock to his very first regular season MVP.
Lamar Jackson-
Lamar
Jackson is a very special player, the way he plays football puts people in
awe. He can run faster, and juke better
than some running backs can. Not only does
he have a powerful arm to throw deep bombs downfield but is also very accurate. His accuracy is often underestimated, in fact,
a lot of people still underrate Lamar in general. I don’t understand how you can’t recognize
greatness when you see it, but that is neither here nor there, because the man
is currently the odds-on favorite to win his 3rd MVP in the last five
years. Baltimore’s quarterback is also
the reigning MVP of last season. If you are
a betting man or woman Jackson shares betting odds with Josh Allen for +300
odds as the favored choice for MVP.
The
Ravens QB Lamar Jackson leads the charge for this incredibly high-powered
offensive unit and the only team that has a comparable offense so far this
season would be the Detroit Lions. Baltimore
already possessed a big-time threat to the rest of the league in their ability
to provide the best rushing offense in the NFL.
Then they went out and sent massive shockwaves leaguewide when they
signed the King of the run game, Derrick Henry.
Did anyone think that they wouldn’t be the best rushing offense for the
second consecutive season after pulling that off? If you answered that question with a yes, I guess
you must not know much about football. Baltimore
is obviously ranked 1st in the ground game with an average of 182.6 yards
a contest. Henry alone rushes for 112
yards a game, plus you must factor in Lamar’s 52.8 yards. Henry is 1st in the league in rushing
yards by about 200 yards more than 2nd place, while Lamar is also
inside the top 20 in rushing (16th).
The Ravens lead all teams in total yardage as well with 440.2 yards per
game.
You
can say what you want about these Baltimore Ravens and their pass defense
struggles this season. However, whatever
you do don’t say that this offense along with Lamar aren’t great and don’t
forget to mention this man when you’re talking about the MVP race this season
or you’ll look quite foolish. Jackson
leads all quarterbacks in passing touchdowns this season with 24 (tied with Burrow),
he’s 2nd in total passing yards (2,669 yds), throws on average 266.9
yards a game (4th) and has this passing attack somehow in only 2nd
place (257.6 ypg) to the Seattle Seahawks.
In terms of quarterback rating (77.6) and passer rating (123.2) he leads
all QBs in both those statistics as well.
His worst statistic would be his completion percentage (69.1%) in which he
currently ranks 9th among all quarterbacks. I forgot to mention one thing about Lamar, he
also leads the league in turnovers, only throwing 2 interceptions (tied with Allen
& Daniels) throughout the first half of the season. (I didn’t count Flacco, Fields, Herbert or
Wilson in the interceptions category because none have played every game this
season)
When
it comes to the possible reasons that the Ravens QB may not win this year’s MVP,
I can only say that maybe the NFL may not want to give the award to the same
player for the second straight season.
When taking a deep dive into the NFLs history of MVP winners, I found
that only four players have won the honor of back-to-back MVPs. It was four players, though it happened five times:
Jim Brown (57-58), Joe Montana (89-90), Peyton Manning (03-04) & (08-09),
and Aaron Rodgers (20-21). Another trend
I found while analyzing the past MVPs is that it has been 12 years since a
non-quarterback has won it. Lastly,
something else that may play in the favor of the Raven’s signal caller is the
fact that there have only been three players to win the award over the last 6
years now: Lamar, Mahomes, and Rodgers.
They may want to find a reason to force it onto someone else that has
had a very good or great season, though Lamar may end the season with the best
numbers.
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