Last night, Tom Brady threw four TD passes for the second consecutive game. He has now thrown 17 TDs and zero INTs over his last seven games. Last night’s performance was masterful against a good New York Jets defense, albeit they were without their leader in the secondary, Jim Leonhard. After last night’s game, the most common thinking is that Tom Brady is now the front runner for the NFL MVP.
The top four candidates entering Week 13 were: Tom Brady, Michael Vick, Phillip Rivers and Peyton Manning.
Manning had a horrible performance, throwing four INTs for the second consecutive week and his team is a struggling 6-6. I have eliminated him from my MVP contention, despite him having the most passing yards in the NFL.
Rivers also did not play well. He snapped his streak of four consecutive games with a 100+ passer rating, posting only a 79. Also, over the past three games, his blistering yardage pace has severely slowed down. He has the second highest yardage total in the NFL, barely ahead of #3 (Drew Brees).
That leaves Vick. Vick had another great game in Week 13, leading the Eagles to a fourth quarter come-from-behind victory. Vick has a 105.7 passer rating, which is good for 2nd in the NFL behind Brady’s 109.5. Vick’s passing numbers compete very well with Brady and Rivers. They all are completing more than 63% of their passes and they all have passer ratings better than 102. Vick has 15 TDs to 2 INTS compared to Brady’s 27 TDs to 4 INTs and Rivers 24 TDs to 10 INTs. Vick also adds another element that neither Rivers or Brady possess. He rushes for about 51 yards per game and can be a true game changer on multiple levels.
Brady is clearly the best player on the best team, which many people use as their MVP qualifier. To me, Vick is the literal MVP. He is the most valuable player in the league, because his team would be worse off without him than the Patriots without Brady. That statement might rub some people the wrong way, but Brady has been sacked only 18 times this season. He has tremendous amounts of time in the pocket that allows him to carve up defenses. Vick has been sacked 23 times on 117 less attempts than Brady. Vick has also missed three games due to injury.
As of today, I would rank my MVP candidates:
1. Michael Vick
2. Tom Brady
3. Phillip Rivers
4. Aaron Rodgers
5. Drew Brees
For now, I’m sticking with Vick, but if Brady has another game like he did against the Jets – I would probably make the switch.
Who is your NFL MVP? Comment below
[Photo Credit: MidwestSportsFans.com]
