NFL MVP - Brees or Rodgers?

And yet Brees wins offensive POY by a vote of 43-7. I guess Rodgers' work as the holder made all the difference.

Total pet peeve of mine -- it's either a copout split vote or an illogical parsing of definitions, but with two players at the same position, it is not possible to conclude that one is better and the other is more valuable.

 

The OPOY shouldn't even exist. I feel as though it exists because the DPOY exists. Just scrap them both and have an MVP for defense and offense.

 

I decided to go back and look at the history, and in the past 21 years, Drew Brees is the only quarterback to win the AP's offensive player of the year but not the AP's MVP. Here's the full list:

Year: MVP / OPOY (when different)
1972: Larry Brown
1973: O.J. Simpson
1974: Ken Stabler
1975: Fran Tarkenton
1976: Bert Jones
1977: Walter Payton
1978: Terry Bradshaw / Earl Campbell
1979: Earl Campbell
1980: Brian Sipe / Earl Campbell
1981: Ken Anderson
1982: Mark Moseley / Dan Fouts
1983: Joe Thiesmann
1984: Dan Marino
1985: Marcus Allen
1986: Lawrence Taylor / Eric Dickerson
1987: John Elway
1988: Boomer Esiason / Roger Craig
1989: Joe Montana
1990: Joe Montana / Warren Moon
1991: Thurman Thomas
1992: Steve Young
1993: Emmitt Smith / Jerry Rice
1994: Steve Young / Barry Sanders
1995: Brett Favre
1996: Brett Favre / Terrell Davis
1997: Brett Favre, Barry Sanders / Barry Sanders
1998: Terrell Davis
1999: Kurt Warner / Marshall Faulk
2000: Marshall Faulk
2001: Kurt Warner / Marshall Faulk
2002: Rich Gannon / Priest Holmes
2003: Peyton Manning, Steve McNair / Jamal Lewis
2004: Peyton Manning
2005: Shaun Alexander
2006: LaDanian Tomlinson
2007: Tom Brady
2008: Peyton Manning / Drew Brees
2009: Peyton Manning / Chris Johnson
2010: Tom Brady
2011: Aaron Rodgers / Drew Brees

Brees is joined by Warren Moon and Dan Fouts on that list as the only quarterbacks to win offensive player of the year but not MVP. So it would appear that most of the splits are because the voters think quarterbacks are almost always the most valuable players but not always the best offensive players. Brees, like Fouts and Moon, is likely an exception because he plays in an offense that puts up Texas Tech-style numbers. That's probably not fair to him or to the MVP quarterbacks.

 

Bert Jones...

Now that career was a crying shame.

And the Moseley pick is still a freaking joke.