• Orange Beach based analyst breaks down the award process

On the eve of Super Bowl XLIX, the NFL Honors ceremony took place in Phoenix, Ari., honoring the best players, coaches, and moments for the 2014 NFL season. The categories included Play of the year, defensive rookie of the year, offensive rookie of the year, coach of the year, comeback player of the year, offensive and defensive player of the year, and last but not least the NFL Associated Press MVP of the year.

Among the candidates to receive the prestige yearly award were New England QB Tom Brady, Dallas QB Tony Romo and RB Demarco Murray, Houston DE J.J Watt, Green Bay QB Aaron Rodgers, and others that were minor candidates. In the end Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers won the award with 31 votes out of 50 votes. 2nd place recipient J.J Watt got 13, while Tony Romo and Demarco Murray (both teammates) got 2 votes each, Tom Brady got 1 vote, and Seattle LB Bobby Wagner got 1 vote as well.

The awards are voted by very experienced sports writers throughout the nation. Unlike sports commentators and analysts, the voters look at overall game development and how they changed their team's season.


Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers got the award for NFL Associated Press MVP of the 2014 season for the 2nd time in his career but not without causing a little bit of a stir. Throughout the end of the season, one of the main topics outside the NFL playoff race was the MVP award and to whom should it go to.

Obviously we wouldn't have found out about the award until Jan. 31 during the award ceremony giving many people a lot of time to state their case for their pick. One of the biggest names to show up on the candidate list was Houston Texans DE J.J. Watt who had one of the dominating seasons defensively in NFL history. Watt accounted for 78 tackles and 20.5 sacks on the season which is second in the NFL behind Kansas City Chiefs LB Justin Houston's 22 sacks. Watt however had accounted for 41 more yards lost from Justin Houston's tackles and sacks. Watt also had 10 pass deflections, he had 1 interception that went for an 80 yard touchdown, forced 4 fumbles, recovered 5 fumbles (one of which got Watt another touchdown). On top of that, the Houston Texans used Watt as a red zone Tight End where he caught 3 receptions for 4 yards all of them being touchdowns.

Watt had 5 touchdowns in the 2014 season alone, most defensive players (especially defensive linemen like Watt) barely get 3 in their entire career. I had my vote for J.J Watt to be honest but it wasn't just because of his statistics in games. He was the force of the Houston Texans defense and was the main reason why the Houston Texans had a winning 9-7 record after having the NFL's worst 2-14 record a year ago.

If there is one thing the great Vince Lombardi had taught us however, it is that the quarterback position is the most important position in professional sports.


Now I do not wish to exclude Rodgers for his great season and his MVP award; he truly deserves it. Rodgers is and always will be the quarterback of the Green Bay Packers. People don't realize how hard and how tough it is to be the franchise quarterback of a team that has been coached by Vince Lombardi and has had players like Bart Starr and Brett Farve play the position before him. Unlike the 2011 season when he first won the award, Rodgers had to truly fight for it with Watt being a freak of nature, Tony Romo finally playing at the top of his game with Demarco running wild as his Running Back, and Tom Brady being Tom Brady. Aaron Rodgers was 7th in the NFL in total passing yards with 4,381 yards thrown in the regular season, 3rd in the NFL in touchdowns thrown in the regular season with 38, and 2nd in the NFL in quarterback rating with 112.2 (just 1 point short of Tony Romo). Aaron only threw 5 interceptions in the regular season. During that time Rodgers set an NFL record of most consecutive passes thrown without an interception that was previously held by Tom Brady. Statistically, Aaron Rodgers easily ranks in the top 10 in all quarterback categories; thus, making him the most efficient quarterback in the NFL this season.

In the game against the Philadelphia Eagles on November 16th, Rodgers threw for 341 yards and 3 touchdowns in which he and the Packers just collapsed the Eagles on a 53-20 score. Rodgers also threw for 368 yards and 2 touchdowns against the New England Patriots in which they had huge cornerback players like Darrell Revis and Brandon Browner. Rodgers was the key factor in which he did not throw a pass over 45 yards in the game. The usual Aaron Rodgers would throw it deep down field and let his receivers like Jordy Nelson or Randall Cobb do the work but Aaron knew that would not be the case against the Patriots so he was forced to mix it up and be the best game manager over Tom Brady.

The Packers ended up beating the Patriots on a 26-21 score. Truly, this was Aaron's best season as a quarterback in the NFL but what if I told you that he was hampered with a torn calf muscle and a hamstring injury throughout the last half of the season. Even in the regular season finale against the Detroit Lions, his injury had gotten worse and forced to stay in the locker room during the 1st offensive series of the 2nd half. Seeing backup QB Matt Flynn and the Packers offense struggling without him, Rodgers took it upon himself to fight through the injury and lead the Packers to a 30-20 victory over the Lions in Green Bay. You could hear the Packers crowd chant of “MVP, MVP” as he was running onto the field to talk to head coach Mike McCarthy to put him into the game. Rodgers went on to beat the Dallas Cowboys in the divisional round of the playoffs with a 26-21 victory where he threw 316 yards and 3 touchdowns.

The Packers then lost to the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC Championship but not before leading a comeback along with WR Jordy Nelson and K Mason Crosby to force the game into overtime. It was very clear that the Packer's identity and offense is centered through Aaron Rodgers.

One that did question me during the awards ceremony was that since Dallas RB Demarco Murray won the Offensive player of the year for rushing over 1800 yards (500 more than any running back). I was wondering how could Aaron Rodgers win the MVP award and not Murray or Watt who unanimously won the defensive player of the year award.

I then figured out that you don't have to be the flashiest player to win the MVP of a game, so the MVP of the year award should make sense in this proceeding. Rodgers posted high numbers but not No.1, but he was the most consistent on a very successful team. That is one thing the Associated Press has really shown favor for in the past. Rodgers is on the track to be the best quarterback of all time if he puts up high consistent numbers like this.