Peyton Manning is going to get his fifth MVP trophy this year. And he probably deserves it. He has already broken the record for most touchdowns thrown in a season, and he still has one more game to go. If he wins next week, the Broncos get a first round bye. Here is the argument only against him:
MVP stands for the "most valuable player." The player that is most valuable to his team should get the MVP award.
Right now the Seahawks have all but clinched the first seed. The NFC is a much more difficult conference than the AFC. And the NFC west is by far the best division in the NFL. What would the Seahawks be without
Russel Wilson? Probably not even a playoff team.
Same goes for the Panthers. If the Panthers win tomorrow, they clinch the 2 seed. Without
Cam Newton, this team also would miss the playoffs.
And the Patriots. Before the season even started, many ESPN writers and analysts were saying
Tom Brady will have the least amount of talent he's ever had. Expectations for the Patriots were at an all time low. They had a bad defense, Gronkowski was hurt, and all of Brady's other receivers had go to other teams (or gone to prison).
Then the season started. Brady's new number one target Amendola got hurt for a while. Brady started throwing the ball to Aaron Dobson a lot, then he got hurt. Gronk came back for a few games, then they lost him for the rest of the season.
Their four best defensive players all sustained season ending injuries early in the season (Wilfork, Mayo, Kelly and Vollmer).
Yet here the Patriots are. One game out of 1st place in the AFC. Against the Broncos, Tom Brady overcame 3 fumbles in the first 3 drives when they played Peyton Manning and won. (
HIGHLIGHTS)
Also, the season could have been even better. All 4 of the Patriot loses have come down to the last play. (INT on the 3 yard line against the Bengals; rare, weird 'push in the back of your own teammate' call against the Jets; the bear hug on Gronkowski against the Panthers that was a pass interference but then it wasn't
but it actually was; and Edelman's dropped pass in the endzone with 12 seconds left against the Dolphins)
What if we replaced these players?
Let's hypothetically replace all these players with a quarterback. Let's pick a quarterback that is so bad, no NFL team even wants him as even their back up. Let's pick Tim Tebow.
Put Tebow on the Seahawks or the Panthers, that team goes misses the playoffs. Probably goes 6-10 or 7-9.
Put Tebow on this Patriot team. They'd be lucky to go 4-12.
Put Tebow on this Broncos team. Oh wait. He WAS on the Broncos. He was on this Bronco team before they got even better with additions like Wes Welker, Julius Thomas, and others.
Replace Peyton Manning with Tim Tebow. With Tebow, this team went 7-4 (he didn't start until week 5), made the playoffs, and beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in his first Playoff game. Last year, with Peyton Manning instead of Tim Tebow, the Broncos
lost their first playoff game. In wins/loses, Peyton hasn't been very
valuable replacing the "horrible" Tim Tebow.
So is Peyton Manning more
valuable then Wilson, Newton, or Tom? No. However, he is setting records and he is Peyton Manning. We should have just saved time and given Peyton the MVP award when he threw 7 touchdowns in his first game against the Ravens because that's when he already had it won.
PS - Shout out to Jimmy Graham. I think he is the most left out player when discussing MVP candidates. He is such a game changer for Saints. Second on touchdowns behind Jamaal Charles and a good blocker too.