NFL True MVP's

The Most Valuable Player award is often given to the most outstanding player that season, or who is considered to have had the best season. However, many of us know that it doesn’t always equate to the player who is the most valuable to their team. This is what I call the TMVP, or the Truly Most Valuable Player award. So what’s the difference? This award goes to the player who is most indispensible to his team. To the player who’s team would absolutely collapse and crumble without him more so than any other player out there. Without further addition, here are my contenders for the prestigious TMVP award.

4^th Runner-up: Tom Brady

Photo courtesy of The Brit_2

Normally you’d have to put Tom Brady higher on this list, because as far as anybody knows this team could fall back into decades of mediocrity without him at the reigns. That’s just it though, nobody really knows. Ever since “The Golden Boy” took over for an injured Drew Bledsoe nobody has ever known this team as anything but one of the biggest threats in the NFL. However, Brady has a lot more help now than he did in those early Super Bowl runs. The defense is better, the receivers are better, the running backs are better, the tight ends are better, the whole team is better. Even given that, you can’t say for certain this is more than a 6-win team without Brady on it, it’s simply something we haven’t seen. Given what he accomplished with virtually nothing in the past though, it’s hard to really definitively say how much more than nothing he has right now. There are just too many players who look drastically better with Tom Brady on their team to not have him on this list.

3^rd Runner-up: Aaron Rodgers

Photo courtesy of Mike Morbeck

There’s no question Aaron Rodgers is the spark plug that makes the Packers go, and where would they be without him? Does anybody have any faith in Graham Harrell taking this same team anywhere? While we’ve seen formerly pro-bowl passing options like Greg Jennings, Donald Driver, and Jermichael Finley fall to the wayside, it hasn’t stopped Rodgers from being one of the best of the best. That’s impressive, given it’s a status he managed to maintain by relying more on simply serviceable players like Jordy Nelson, James Jones, and Randall Cobb. He even mixed a little Tom Crabtree in there. All on a team has barely been able to run the ball the past few years. Make no mistake about it, without Rodgers manning the helm, all would be lost in Lambeau, and little could be done about it.

2^nd Runner-up: Drew Brees

Photo courtesy of IAN RANSLEY DESIGN + ILLUSTRATION

Sure, maybe the New Orleans Saints didn’t have the best season in the world, probably impacted by the whole “bounty-gate” scandal that was there, then kinda-sorta there, then not so much there anymore. Yeah, there’s no question with guys like Sproles, Colston, Jahri Evans, and super-stud Jimmy Graham there is certainly some talent on this team, but no Drew Brees would put this team in the basement the moment he stepped off the field. Forget about statistical leader, Drew Brees is the emotional leader of this team, and while going 7-9 is nothing to brag to anybody about, it is still an impressive feat if you take into consideration that the Saints gave up more points per game than the Raiders, Eagles, and Jaguars. What do you expect to happen if you have to put up 35 points every week to guarantee yourself a victory? Now imagine trying to do that without Drew Brees. Exactly.

1^st Runner-up: Adrian Peterson

Photo courtesy of Mike Morbeck

Take a team with a bad quarterback. Add to that, really bad wide receivers. Now remove the one good wide receiver on the team.  Mix in a bad offensive line. Stir. This should be a recipe for complete and utter disaster. Instead, over 2,000 yards later your running back who was returning from reconstructive knee surgery is dragging a team that should have been fighting for the first pick in the NFL draft into the playoffs. Somebody made the argument that you could have easily put Jared Allen on this list, and the same notion would hold true, the Minnesota Vikings would have completely collapsed. That said, it doesn’t make it any less true that Adrian Peterson was the closest thing you could find to a one-man team that wasn’t a signal caller. Nobody should have been able to do what he did coming back from that injury, nobody should have been able to do what he did even if they weren’t coming back off of injury. Most astoundingly, no one player should have been able to be added to this team and push them into a playoff birth. It should be obvious to everybody now that in Adrian Peterson’s world, you’re capable of doing what shouldn’t be possible. Peterson is the definition of a truly irreplaceable commodity in this league. It’s only a miracle that this guy doesn’t win this award, and in many ways you could argue he could have.

Winner: Andrew Luck

Photo courtesy of NFLfan18

That’s right, a rookie. Maybe not what you were expecting to see, but if you think about it the proof is already there. Now I know, I know, the guy tied Mark Sanchez for second most interceptions thrown this year, and had a worse completion percentage than Sanchez which ranked near the bottom of the league. He was 26^th in the league with a 76.5 passer rating. This all means nothing in the grand scheme of things. What made Luck a great stand out player are the intangibles. This is not a dink-and-dunk passer. The Colts had no running game to speak of and his offensive line was horrendous all year long, but he still managed to throw for over 4,000 yards. He was so clutch this year you almost wonder if he didn’t steal it from Eli Manning before the season started (at least that would explain what happened to Manning). He completed a ridiculous 83.9% of his passes on first down, but also touted an impressive 37.6% conversion rate on third downs, virtually unparalleled for a rookie quarterback. Again, the interceptions and low completion rate can be contributed primarily (outside of not having an offensive line or a running game) to one major factor: the guy is not a dink-and-dunk passer. Luck throws the ball as a quarterback was originally meant to, downfield, with remarkable consistency. It didn’t help him that his receivers seemed to drop as many passes as you could without looking like you don’t belong in the NFL. He was great at causing defenses to create their own penalties with hard counts (that intangibles thing again). If none of these stats convince you that he’s deserving of this award I have one final stat for you. Without Andrew Luck the Colts went 2-14. With Andrew Luck the Colts went 11-5, losing in the playoffs to a Ravens team who are now in the AFC Championship game. I rest my case.