NFL MVP: Peyton Manning

As many times as a QB handles the ball, this award should always stilt toward that position.

 

chic vote.

he had a great season. 9 straight wins to end the season is impressive. but most valuable?

the argument is always going to be a hair split 20 ways: what constitutes most valuable?

ryan? pennington? peterson? for the first 10 weeks, i thought it would be warner, but he spiraled way down. what about rivers? deangelo was impressive.

no one balls above the rest. manning's a fine choice, i suppose. someone has to win it.

 

take a QB away from any playoff and impose a league average QB and see what happens. Replace Roethlisberger with Jay Cutler and the Steelers don;t miss a beat.
Replace Peyton with Trent Edwards and Tony Dungy retired 2 years ago.

 

Abbott, that example is a little off. Cutler is far better than Roethlisberger, who completely blows. Manning is an all-pro and Edwards is sub-Roethlisberger even.

 

I go the other way. It's way off because the Steelers would miss leadership and a guy who keeps plays alive and makes plays (sometimes by holding on to the ball too long). The Steelers would be a worse team with Cutler at quarterback, because Cutler wouldn't lead that game-winning drive at Baltimore, which would mean the Ravens maybe win the division.

One led a team to the Super Bowl, one is still hoping to lead his team to the playoffs. There's no comparison.

p.s. I take no responsibility for this Steelers-jack, heyabbott started it.

 

I agree.

Ben's a peacock, but he can make plays when the sphincters are puckering.

 

Slightly specious I'll grant you, but Cutler and Edwards were the 16 & 17 rated QBs this year, they represent the median QB in terms of QB rating (also a specious term).

How valuable is someone? remove them from the equation and see what happens.

 

Certainly, Peyton is a worthy choice for MVP.

Valid arguments can be made for Pennington, Ryan and Turner.

 

Led his team to a Super Bowl? I'd say that's selling the defense about 30 miles short. The Steelers won that championship in spite of their quarterback play, especially in the big game itself, and even more so in the win over the Colts. Unless you're praising him for his play as a defender.

 

If Philip Rivers was named Peyton Manning, he would have won the award handily.

Weak choice, a down year for Manning. The 2008 Colts may be the luckiest team of the modern era.

 

Early leader in the clubhouse for dumbest post of the year. The first part makes absolutely no sense, and the second part makes even less. Why. exactly, is it a weak choice?

Manning was the best, and IMO, only choice here.

Among the league's most valuable players, he has the least flaws. And he has been, uh, flawless for the last two-plus months. Also, while every team would have been worse without its MVP candidates, the dropoff from Manning to Sorgi is miles wider than the dropoff between any of the other candidates and any of the players who would have had to replace them.

Peterson was great, but his fumbles continue to be a problem, and while he led the league in rushing, he didn't have any truly memorable games.

Ryan and Turner cancel each other out because while they both did better than anyone ever expected, neither had to carry his team because of the other's presence.

Pennington was the chic choice, not Manning, and while he's a great story, the Dolphins never relied on him to win the game. Their success starts with good defense and a running game. That Pennington did as well as he did just added to the team's success.

 

On paper it looks good because Peyton had a great second-half and the team won. In that case, I guess the MVP is justified. But he was terrible in the early parts of the year, and it's a miracle that the team did not lose seven of their first eight games, besides the impressive thrashing of the Baltimore Ravens.

But the most consistant and best player in the league this season was Rivers. He really only had one poor game - and that was against Pittsburgh.