Who should win the NFL MVP award?

[Akhilleus]

I think when people talk about the MVP award, it is often taken as something else. Generally the MVP award goes to who the best player in the league was. Whoever put up the best stats and won the most games.

But what does MVP stand for? It stands for Most Valuable Player. When I think of that phrase, I think of a player whose team would be absolutely lost without them. Take the 2012 MVP winner Adrian Peterson for example. Had the Vikings been without Adrian Peterson that season not only would they have not made the playoffs like they did, but they would have more than likely suffered a more devastating season than the one they did in 2013. Calvin Johnson would be another great example of a most valuable player. Would anyone argue that if the Lions did not have Calvin Johnson this year, then they would have probably lost 12 games instead of 9, or worse even. That is what most valuable player means to me.

Now even though it isn't announced yet, it is nearly set in stone that Peyton Manning is going to be given his fifth AP NFL MVP award this season, but is he really the most valuable player to the Broncos? In my honest opinion, I don't think he is. I agree that without him they don't have a chance to even win the Super Bowl, but still if you put just an average Quarterback behind center like Carson Palmer for example, I think with the receivers that Denver has that they would have finished either around the same spot, or maybe lost just two more games. Just remember that two years ago the Broncos had won their division with Tim Tebow playing QB, a guy who is not even in the league right now. Then again, if you asked me who the most valuable player to the Broncos would be if not Peyton Manning, then I probably couldn't answer that question. The scary thing about Denver is that they are so well rounded as a team that makes it so difficult to pick one apart. With Thomas or Welker, I guarantee that Peyton Manning would not have thrown over 50 TDs this year, and without Manning I can also bet that Thomas and Welker wouldn't have been as good as they are. One can't really work without the other. Now the same could probably be said for Calvin Johnson and Matthew Stafford, or Adrian Peterson and his offensive line.

But the question still remains, is Peyton Manning still more valuable to the Broncos than say Calvin Johnson or Adrain Peterson is more valuable to their teams? Or Jamaal Charles to the Chiefs? Or even Tom Brady to the New England Patriots. In all honesty, Tom Brady and Bill Belichick pretty much make that team. It was a team that I thought was going to finish around 10-6, 11-5 at best, and now they're one game away from going to the Super Bowl once again. They don't have Welker, they don't have Gronkowski, they don't have Aaron Hernandez, and yet Brady continues to keep getting it done on the field. But without Brady that team is probably 6-10, maybe 8-8 if Belichick is really as amazing as a lot of people say.

So what do you think? Is Peyton Manning really the most irreplaceable player in the league? Or do you think the Broncos could still get it done as long as they have a decent enough Quarterback to throw the balls?

 

[Mustang Sally]

When I think of that phrase, I think of a player whose team would be absolutely lost without them.

Under that criterion, I think it comes down to Aaron Rodgers and Peyton Manning. Look at difference in Green Bay with Rodgers and without him; even the damn Giants were able to beat the Packers when Rodgers wasn't in there. The phrase "team is absolutely lost without him" pertains here to the highest degree. Yet, even with him, I doubt Green Bay would have attained the heights the Broncos did with.....

.....Peyton Manning. He threw more touchdown passes and yards than anyone in history. He took a team that was 8-8 in 2011 and led them to two seasons of 13-3. That's unbelievable. Yes, Denver surely did other things to improve the team at the same time Peyton arrived, but a 5 game swing in a single season? C'mon now!

Even though it was unfortunate for the Packers, one must appreciate the practical demonstration given on how valuable Aaron Rodgers is to his team. But I can't see how it tops what Peyton Manning did; his performance was historic.

He's the MVP.

 

[hatehabsforever]

Tom Brady. When in doubt, it's always all about Tom Brady.

OK maybe that's overstating it a tad, but let's face it, with the losses of Wes Welker and Aaron Hernandez (for obviously different reasons) and with the injuries involving Rob Gronkowski, and the generalized uncertainty of their offense with such obvious voids to fill, most people figured this season would be a struggle for the Patriots, that they might make the playoffs due to the division they were in, but they wouldn't go far. Yet here they are, back in the AFC Championship game after throttling the Colts, and I think they have a decent chance to get past the Broncos and go to the Super Bowl yet again. You have to give Brady a huge amount of credit for how this season has played out for New England, so while he may or may not win it, you have to at least give the guy consideration for MVP of the season. As the OP correctly stated, it's not necessarily who is the best player, but who is most valuable to their team. I can't imagine where the Patriots would have been this year if anyone else had been their quarterback.

Brady for MVP for both regular season and Super Bowl

 

[Big Sexy]

The fact that this thread was even created is mind blowing. The ONLY acceptable answer to this question is Peyton Manning. I don't care how literally you want to take the name of the award, the answer is still Peyton Manning. He just had the greatest season EVER for a quarterback and led his team to the best record in the NFL. "But Big Sexy, he has pro bowl caliber talent all around him." You mean the guys that he had a HUGE hand in making look like they do? Let's take a look.

Demaryius Thomas: 2 season prior to Manning's arrival, 54 receptions for 834 yards and 6 touchdowns. 2 seasons with Manning, 186 receptions for 2864 yards and 24 touchdowns.

Eric Decker: 2 seasons prior to Manning's arrival, 50 receptions for 718 yards and 9 touchdowns. 2 seasons with Manning, 172 receptions for 2352 yards and 24 touchdowns.

Julius Thomas: Mainly was a practice squad/special teams guy his 2 seasons before this year and had 1 career catch for 5 yards. This season he had 65 receptions for 788 yards and 12 touchdowns.

Peyton Manning is the MVP of the league this season. Without him the Broncos would not have even sniffed the playoffs. Any other answer to this question is laughable at best and mind numbingly stupid at worst.

 

[Akhilleus]

Often times when I make threads like these and I find myself considering all the scenarios, I discover that I can even change my own mind towards the very point I was debating.

For example, when I was talking about what the Broncos would have done with say Palmer instead of Manning, I realized that had the Broncos been in that situation than the Chiefs surely would have won that division with the season they had. They came close to winning it with Manning there anyway. And like I said at the end of my post if Manning isn't the most valuable player to the Broncos, than who would be? He is clearly a shoe in to win it, but what I am exploring is if Manning is more valuable to the Broncos as someone like Megatron would be to the Lions. That means that the player makes or breaks the team. I still think the Broncos have a strong enough team and solid enough coaching staff to have a successful season without Manning. Put an above-average QB like Matt Ryan or Joe Flacco in there and I think they get the same results. But there truly is no telling, and that is because nobody in the league has the football IQ and the ability to read a defense like Peyton Manning does.

Not only that, but if you ask who is the most valuable player in the league rather than to a team, then I think Manning also gets the nod. What you say Big Sexy is right, Manning's season cannot be ignored. He did have the all time best statistical regular season by a QB to date, and that is justified enough for the award. But I wholeheartedly disagree that Peyton Manning makes Demaryius Thomas, and maybe even Julius Thomas. Eric Decker I agree, I did not include him with D. Thomas and Welker in my original post. Peyton Manning definitely makes him, but Demaryius and Julius are two different stories.

As far as Demaryius Thomas goes, you bring up his numbers from the years before Manning compared to his numbers with him. But keep in mind who the Broncos had playing Quarterback in those two years. Kyle Orton, and Tim Tebow. If Tim Tebow had started for the Lions instead of Matthew Stafford, do you think Calvin Johnson would have put up anywhere near the numbers he did? No, he may have still gotten things done because that's just how great Megatron is, but he wouldn't have had anywhere near the statistics that he had. Not only did Thomas have those two QBs throwing to him, but he was also only 23 and 24 years old. Coming fresh out of college most wideouts aren't going to put up superb numbers their first year, usually their second year is when they start to break out. So it makes complete sense that Thomas' spike is when it was his third and fourth seasons. Of course Manning helps having any All Pro player behind center helps, but to credit all of Thomas' success to Peyton Manning is unfair.

Now for the other Thomas, Julius Thomas, you have to keep in mind the injuries he's suffered since entering the league. He's barely had a chance to get in there and play well. The first catch he made during the 2012 season gave him an injured ankle and put him on the sidelines for the rest of the season. He's injury prone, and he even had a run in with injuries this year too. But to also give Manning credit for this breakout season is unfair to Julius Thomas, because I also think on any other team with an above average QB, Thomas can play just as well.

None the less I do recognize that Manning deserves the MVP award, and that he still is the centerpiece of that Denver team. But when he inevitably retires either this year or next year, I think that Brock Osweiler kid is going to get in there and I think the Broncos are going to still control that division. Which leads to what the main question of this thread is. While we know Manning had the best year out of anyone in the NFL and he deserve the award, if you take him away will the Broncos be as lost without him as a team like the Vikings would be if you took away Adrian Peterson? Big Sexy says yay, I say nay.

 

[Steve0904]

The fact that this thread was even created is mind blowing. The ONLY acceptable answer to this question is Peyton Manning. I don't care how literally you want to take the name of the award, the answer is still Peyton Manning. He just had the greatest season EVER for a quarterback and led his team to the best record in the NFL. "But Big Sexy, he has pro bowl caliber talent all around him." You mean the guys that he had a HUGE hand in making look like they do? Let's take a look.

Demaryius Thomas: 2 season prior to Manning's arrival, 54 receptions for 834 yards and 6 touchdowns. 2 seasons with Manning, 186 receptions for 2864 yards and 24 touchdowns.

Eric Decker: 2 seasons prior to Manning's arrival, 50 receptions for 718 yards and 9 touchdowns. 2 seasons with Manning, 172 receptions for 2352 yards and 24 touchdowns.

Julius Thomas: Mainly was a practice squad/special teams guy his 2 seasons before this year and had 1 career catch for 5 yards. This season he had 65 receptions for 788 yards and 12 touchdowns.

Peyton Manning is the MVP of the league this season. Without him the Broncos would not have even sniffed the playoffs. Any other answer to this question is laughable at best and mind numbingly stupid at worst.

Could not have said it much better. It is really not even close no matter how much anybody hates Peyton Manning. And it is definitely not Tom Brady. The overrating of TB continually astounds me. He missed at least 3 deep balls in the game today that were far overthrown. Were not even close. It is laughable that most people do not realize the incredible upsurge in numbers for Manning's WR's since Manning got there. These guys were next to nobodies before Manning came to Denver. Now they all have 10+ TD's in a season which is unheard of to this point in history.

 

[Akhilleus]

Could not have said it much better. It is really not even close no matter how much anybody hates Peyton Manning. And it is definitely not Tom Brady. The overrating of TB continually astounds me. He missed at least 3 deep balls in the game today that were far overthrown. Were not even close. It is laughable that most people do not realize the incredible upsurge in numbers for Manning's WR's since Manning got there. These guys were next to nobodies before Manning came to Denver. Now they all have 10+ TD's in a season which is unheard of to this point in history.

In all due respect saying Tom Brady is overrated is being quite ignorant of what he actually does. Talk about making wideouts, Brady lost both of his tight ends and his top WR and he still got it down with a couple of rookies and Danny 'freakin Amendola.

It is laughable that most people do not remember who was actually playing QB for the Broncos during that "Pre-Manning era". Timmy Tebow and Kyle Orton, that's a player who's best gig right now would be a backup AFL QB, and a player who is so bad that when Tony Romo got injured the Cowboys felt the need to bring back a 41 year old math teacher.

Like I said in my last post, D. Thomas was not only 23 and 24 his first two seasons without Manning, not only playing with Tim Tebow and Kyle Orton throwing to him, but he also tore his Achilles tendon at the beginning of the 2011 season. Plus his rookie season was also filled with injuries. The year that Manning came to Denver was the first year that Thomas actually played an entire season, and the first year he broke out as a star. The guy is an animal, and to credit his abilities to Peyton Manning is extremely disrespectful to what Thomas can do. Sorry, but that's the truth.

Do not get me wrong, Peyton Manning deserves the MVP award. It would obviously cause quite an uproar if he didn't get it. Yet I still believe that if you put any above average QB in there like Matt Ryan, Joe Flacco, Phillip Rivers, etc...they would have gotten to the AFC Championship game this year. They might not have won it, but I think they would have gotten there.

And also keep in mind how many times that team "ran up the score". They left Manning in there the whole game just in Week 1 to throw 7 TDs. I'm not given any disrespect to Manning he is a great player, but to be ignorant of how good Demaryius Thomas and the rest of that offense really is wouldn't be fair. The fact that you are looking at the stats of Demaryius Thomas and Julius Thomas without knowing how much he actually played during those two seasons due to injuries proves to me that you don't know a whole lot about the situation.

Sorry if I'm getting a little fired up, but I'm a big fan of Demaryius Thomas and what he can do as a player, and to see some of you guys give all that credit to Peyton Manning just sort of gets my blood going. Not to mention the Tom Brady stuff. I mean Brady is the only reason that team was where they are at. Without him the Dolphins probably win the freaking division this season instead of doing what they did.

 

[Paul Bunyan's Axe]

If I had a vote, it would be to Tom Brady. That is if we're going with the theory of who is most valuable to their team. The difference to me between peyton and brady is the talent that is around them. Peyton Manning his entire career hashad the help of several future hall of famers on offense, whereas brady has made no names into great receivers. How many hall of fame players has to brady played with on offense? Welker, maybe. Thats really the only one I can think of. Look at the rest of the guys. Troy Brown? Definitely not. Kevin Faulk? Deion Branch? The list goes on. Peyton though has been able to play with future hall of famers. Marvin Harisson, Jeff Saturday, Edgerain James (probably not, but close).

but that's a different discussion. If were talking mvp this year, brady has meant more to his team than manning. Rookie receivers, no tru no. 1 wideout, and a shaky defense. Manning had a much better all around team to work with.

And also, its reduntant to judge the award off of what brady did today. It's the season mvp, post season doesn't account.

 

[LoudClearVoice]

Is this even a question? It's Manning 100% for sure. It's a regular season award and he had one of the best regular seasons in NFL history.

 

[Akhilleus]

So as clearly expected Peyton Manning has officially won his 5th MVP award, but interestingly enough it was not unanimous. 49 out of 50 votes went towards Peyton Manning, but there was one vote who choose Tom Brady. I have to wonder if that one person was going about it with the same mindset that I had been.