RF365’s alternative midseason MVP candidates

By Os Davis  |   Wednesday, October 31, 2007  |  Comments( 2 )

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When midseason arrives in the NFL, it brings adjustments both on the field and in cyberspace. Right about now, everyone's forgetting any preseason predictions involving the words "Chicago Bears" or "San Francisco 49ers," while fantasy owners nationwide who took Maurice Jones-Drew in the late first round are drowning their sorrows. We're as pleasantly surprised by the likes of the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers as we are shocked and awed by the Indianapolis Colts and New England Patriots alike.

Halftime: A great time to talk midseason MVP.

This season, of course, the discussion begins and ends with Tom Brady. On pace to exterminate essentially every major single-season aerial record save maybe attempts, Brady is a leader, a passing machine and the heart of the undefeated Patriots. Statistically, socially, politically, you've gotta go with Brady, right?

So call us the underground. RealFootball365.com presents five alternative choices for MVP at the halfway point.

Randy Moss. Yes, sure, the arguments are familiar: The receiver gets so few touches per game; that's like giving the MVP nod in baseball to a middle reliever; plus, we just don't like Moss' attitude, anyway. But the case for Moss has been compelling before and never so much as now.

Looking back through history today (and by history, I mean stats), we can appreciate how dominant Moss has been in his career. Is there any more compelling reason for the Minnesota Vikings' relative glory years in the late 1990s than the Daunte Culpepper-Moss combination? As one example, take Moss' alternative MVP year of 2003: The man caught a ridiculous 111 passes, representing 37.6 percent of Culpepper's completions, and 17 TDs.

But we're not here to talk about the past, and the gaudiness of the Brady-Moss connection's numbers speaks for itself. With 11 TDs on a mere 47 receptions, Moss is scoring just under one out of every four times he gets the ball. Sounds like an MVP candidate to me.

Speaking less numerically, it seems that of all the changes the Patriots made in the offseason, nothing tops the Moss acquisition. As Terrell Owens was for the Philadelphia Eagles (and perhaps for Dallas as well), so is Moss to his Patriots: A deadly receiver who with a few key catches along the way has the power to put his team in the Super Bowl.

Jared Allen. Because we're alternative, we're also equal opportunity, which means we operate with the belief that defense is as important as offense; therefore, it will receive due consideration when individual awards are given.

So why not a DE on a marginal team? Our own Michael Ash presents a great case for Allen here. To Ash's piece, this writer can only add that Allen still leads the NFL in sacks, despite a Chiefs bye week.

I'm also down with Anthony Bialy on the high merits of Bob Sanders. Speaking purely statistically, the case is slightly difficult to argue for Sanders, but the truth is the man is the best safety in the game right now and is an absolutely crushing force against the run.

Instead, check the visual evidence. Week 2: With 1:37 left in the fourth quarter, Sanders comes out of nowhere to destroy Vince Young and the Tennessee Titans' hopes with a sweet sack. Week 7: The Jacksonville Jaguars, facing a fourth-and-1 play with under three minutes to go in the first half, opted to run Maurice Jones-Drew wide left. While the Jags' solid offensive line held, Jones-Drew saw daylight for about 0.01 seconds before getting positively pounded by Sanders. Ouch.

Simply put, an unstoppable force.

(And for those who like the stats, Sanders has been in on 39 tackles and after next week will have played more games than he did in either 2004 or '06.)

How about the very abstract case? To wit, Jeff Saturday. The numbers say that Saturday, playing virtually every down on the offense at center, has yet to allow a sack all season. His Colts are currently second-best in sack stinginess and have given up the fewest in five consecutive seasons. In buoying the rarely discussed and one of the all-time great offensive lines, Saturday deserves mention in any MVP debate.

Devin Hester. Len Pasquarelli (and just about everyone else, but Pasquarelli gets the mention here because his column on this one is actually nicely written) is talking about NFL returners' record pace in 2007. Yet, Hester is the only special teamer in the league for whom sweeping changes in individual game plans are made: Check out the Lions-Bears highlight clip to witness Rod Marinelli chewing out special teams coach Stan Kwan in the third quarter for twice not getting his guys to avoid Hester altogether.

And recently, Hester's been figuring out how to burn the 'D' as a wide receiver. After the Vikings and Eagles resolutely decided to simply not kick it at Hester, the man was clutch anyway with big fourth-quarter receptions in both games.

Peyton Manning. But - and here's a little déjà vu - only if he plays good ball against the Pats on Sunday.

Giving kudos and raining accolades all year-round 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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