January 1, 2018

As the NFL regular season is finally over, we can finally throw away the “what ifs” for players and look at facts and stats for this year’s NFL Most Valuable Player candidates. Even though the MVP is an award that is not always given to the “Most Valuable Player” but “The Player With The Best Stats,” MVP just sounds better than TPWTBS.

Tom Brady, QB, New England Patriots

Tom Brady is easily still the best quarterback in the league, despite being 40 years old. As everyone knows, Tom Brady has been the greatest quarterback in football for nearly two decades and I am definitely not the only one who believes he is the best quarterback – and maybe even player – to ever step foot on a field.

That said, past seasons obviously do not win you MVPs. Brady is the league leader in passing yards (4,387), third in passing touchdowns (30) and completion percentage (67.5%) while having a 104.2 passer rating, which puts him at third in the NFL in that as well. He is also the number one rated quarterback on PFF, Pro Football Focus, with a 94.8 player rating

His individual stats are crazy good, as usual, but he has done this while leading his team to a 13-3 record which has them in a 4-way tie for first place in the NFL.

Todd Gurley III, RB, Los Angeles Rams

Todd Gurley III, often referred to as TG3, has had a tremendous “bounce-back” year. In just his third year in the NFL, he is an MVP candidate. After winning AP Offensive Rookie of The Year, TG3 had a dismal second year. He hit the common “Sophomore Slump” while ending the season with 885 yards rushing and 6 scores, with his longest run of 24 yards. He also only had 327 receiving yards, but even though this was an improvement, he did not finish with a receiving touchdown.

Gurley is now the most explosive and energizing player on his team and arguably the NFL. Here in his third year he has “flipped switch” and turned into one of the league’s top running backs. TG3 leads running backs in receiving yards (788), receiving touchdowns (9), rushing touchdowns (13), and he is second in rushing yards (1,305). With stats like those listed, PFF has him listed with a 92.0 rating, that puts him as the number one rated running back in the league.

Payne’s Picks

In my opinion, the obvious winner should be Todd Gurley. Not just because of his outstanding stats, but the fact that this young man is the only offensive pro bowler on his team – a team with 11 wins. Tom Brady has two others in James Devlin and Rob Gronkowski, who in my opinion is the best tight end ever. Todd Gurley has Jared Goff throwing him the ball; not to down Goff, but he is no Tom Brady. However, Tom is throwing to the best tight end in the NFL and seemingly forces the ball to him in big situations quite a bit.