I actually kind of disagree, people forget those teams were dominant in run defense

Tbf that’s every non-Steelers NFL fan

I dunno why you’d even bother having this opinion if you’re new to the sport

How is he having a better season?

I don’t think Bland is gonna win DPOY tbh

Rodgers and Brady were both outstanding in 2021. Nobody this season is gonna come close to those seasons

People saying this, as if DPOY isn’t by and large a defensive line award

Interesting and irrelevant thing to say about a team that beat yours two games ago

Yeah I guess we could just not talk about the season and the games upcoming until the season’s over if that’s what you’d prefer

Is it that crazy if Garrett conceivably gets 23, they have the best defense in at least a decade by most advanced stats, and the QB field at the end of the season is as bleak as it looks now? He’d definitely start getting votes, if only as a protest

Playoffs don’t factor into the MVP, votes are submitted at the end of the regular season IIRC

The MVP field in 2012 and 2014 wasn’t nearly this bad

See I think JJ losing the MVP in 2012 and 2014 is kind of looked back upon now as missed opportunities, maybe it’s just the kind of media I follow but I think if they had to do it over again a lot of people would have changed their votes.

Also there’s never quite been a season like this where the progress of defenses have been so stark, and the MVP field from the QB position has been so bad. The story of the season is that defenses finally stepped up to the plate after years of what seemed like exponential growth on offense, and Garrett is the best defensive player in the league on the best defense in the league

A subscription is $1 a month, I will say. Good deal for the best sports journalism around

Playcalling sequence and script is a huge part of it. You watch the Eagles for instance just hammer people with the same concepts that have been shown to be working and that’s very distinctive.

The personnel you lean on, heavy or light, can vary even when you run the “same” play concepts. Some teams (Rams) run outside zone from 11, others do a lot of outside zone from 21 (Vikings, 49ers, Dolphins), some will really only run it out of 12 or 13.

And even if a run concept/passing pattern is in like 80% of playbooks that doesn’t mean everybody’s running it the same amount.

To me it’s gotta be Garrett if not a QB, which it will be.

I believe awards should tell the story of the season, this is the season that defenses bit back and nobody proves that more than Garrett and the Browns. But instead it’s gonna go to Hurts or Mahomes or Lamar who are having what will probably go down as career average (if that) years

Honestly this makes sense. The calls to go to Heinicke were a classic example of the backup QB always being the most popular guy in town, he was really equally awful. Ridder’s not gonna make your chances of winning any worse, he’s had the best game a Falcons QB had this season by far, he’s a better runner, and you might as well see what you have in him before next season

Great stuff! Love to see this kind of work being done in-season

Rookies have to be exempt from this award or it gets way too knotty

They shouldn’t advertise a game on their network between the last two Super Bowl participants and the current consensus best teams in the league?