At the half, the NFL Rookie of the Year is…

By Os Davis  |   Monday, November 06, 2006  |  Comments( 9 )

Detroit Lions
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Week 8 has been played out in the NFL, the season's "halftime" has been declared, everywhere stock is taken by pundits, and anyone who picked the Miami Dolphins for the Super Bowl is now suffering selective amnesia. While most question marks teams had going into the season have been answered (e.g. yes, the Arizona Cardinals are still that bad; no, the Pittsburgh Steelers don't have enough to threaten a back-to-back), much speculation regarding individual performance can be debated as the season's Part II gets underway.

Case in point: The Rookie of the Year. This particular race is debated seemingly everywhere (including - shameless plug - right here at Real Football 365), with no one standout yet emerging. Well, this reporter would like to put his head on the chopping block to be kicked around a bit.

Ladies and gentleman, your 2006 NFL Rookie of the Year will be...

Ernie Sims of the Detroit Lions!

Before enumerating on this LB's qualifications, a quick look at the "competition."

In hindsight, the 2006 draft appears to have been loaded with quality at running back. A trio of first-rounders has garnered much attention: Reggie Bush, Laurence Maroney and Joseph Addai. Addai is on pace for 1,000 yards and appears to be getting more comfortable with the Indianapolis Colts' running scheme after a couple of low-production games early in the season.

Much is expected of Bush re: his New Orleans Saints and, barring a couple of huge games down the stretch, the only votes Bush will be getting for the award are those gained by reputation rather than stats. Same goes for Laurence Maroney who, after his huge breakout game against the Cincinnati Bengals, has seemingly been relegated to the status of "secret weapon" by Belichick. Maroney could be in the running (so to speak) with a few more outstanding contributions on special teams, however. A fat game against the Colts' weak run D might help, too.

A case has been made for Owen Daniels with the Houston Texans; Daniels has shown assured brilliance on occasion (check out the dude's nine-catch, 99-yard, two-TD performance against the Tennessee Titans), but time will tell if he's a serious contributor.

At QB are Matt Leinart, Vince Young and Bruce Gradkowski. Um ... no. None of them are winners with hapless offenses and none of them figure to be winners in this voting, either. Unless, of course, ballots can be cast for the Leinart that played for the first three quarters against the Chicago Bears. (Note to Dennis Green: Excuse me, but your O-line is pathetic. Use the shotgun. Watch the Green Bay Packers with a bunch of guys about as good as yours.)

But this is digression. It's all about Sims. A clear shoo-in for Defensive Rookie of the Year, Sims has been brilliant in Rod Marinelli's Tampa 2 defense this season, leading the NFC in tackles; he's also No. 1 in tackles for rooks. In six of seven games, he's registered double-digit tackles and boasts an average of eight-plus tackles per game; these numbers put him on pace for an incredible 133 tackles for the season. Few rookies have immediately made such an Urlacher-like impact on defense in recent years, and none this season.

Perhaps another reason for the league to hand Sims the trophy is simple positive reinforcement: Sims represents a quality draft pick of the likes rarely seen in Detroit's Matt Millen era. Such uncommon competence displayed by everyone's favorite general manager should be rewarded. The Lions need some sort of kudos at this point in their miserable existence, after all.

Regardless of the official accolades bestowed on Sims come season's end, Lions backers will certainly look back on the swell new LB as the brightest spot in a dark 2006.

Maybe the Texans should have taken him at No. 1 overall...

P.S.

Fire Millen anyway.

Keep up with Ernie Sims and the Detroit Lions at RealFootball365.com
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About Os Davis

Os Davis has taken a twisted route to get to RealFootball365.com in his nearly 17 years in professional writing, working in any number of capacities in the sportswriting, news reporting and film criticism worlds. In print media, Os has served as editor at a few publications, including Albuquerque's...
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