Final Thoughts from the 2012 NFL Awards
With the NFL’s official AP awards being announced on Saturday, all of our speculating and debating comes to a close. Each winner was deserving with multiple fantastic and historic seasons throughout the league.
The winners were as follows:
MVP/Offensive Player of the Year- Adrian Peterson
Defensive Player of the Year- J.J. Watt
Comeback Player of the Year- Peyton Manning
Offensive Rookie of the Year- Robert Griffin III
Defensive Rookie of the Year- Luke Kuechly
Coach of the Year- Bruce Arians
As I stated before, each of these individuals had fantastic seasons, and I applaud each of them. They all had very good arguments for the final result.
That being said, I still have a few thoughts on the final results.
Coach of the Year- Bruce Arians
It seemed like Arians began to pull away with this one down the stretch, when it was apparent that the Colts would make the playoffs and a few of the top teams around the league faltered. Really the only person who could have challenged him for this, at least in my opinion, was Jim Harbaugh, whose argument was largely dependent on the 49ers’ playoff run.
Arians is the perfect example of a poor in-game coach who still manages to be a good/very good coach overall. His poor decisions, via playcalling, challenges, or whatever else, cost the Colts in games all season, but his direction, keeping players focused and on target, and his overall offensive philosophy served the Colts well and got them to a playoff game.
Arians likely never will be a great head coach unless he drastically improves his in-game strategy, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be a good head coach. Coaching is so much more than just in-game performance, and it’s important that we remember that when evaluating them.
Verdict- Correct
Defensive Rookie of the Year- Luke Kuechly
I have no qualms about this award. The defensive rookies weren’t nearly as impactful as the offensive ones, but Kuechly’s season was the most noticeable. He finished with over 160 tackles, and looks to be the future for Carolina at linebacker. You can make a case for others, but Kuechly isn’t a controversial call here.
Verdict- Correct
Rookie of the Year- Robert Griffin III
I’m not going to beat this dead horse, as there has been plenty of said on this topic. That being said, I do have a few notes.
- RG3 may have been the least deserving of this award of the three quarterbacks, so for him to run away with the voting is surprising to me (29 votes, to Luck’s 11 and Wilson’s 10). Perhaps it hints at an east coast media bias.
- Russell Wilson had a great year, but he also had the most help, by far. Wilson had the best defense, the best group of wide receivers, the best running back, and arguably the best offensive line among the three quarterbacks. He was also sheltered for nearly half the season by his coaches.
- The biggest negative for Luck in his case for ROY was his turnovers. His 18 interceptions looks like a lot when compared to Wilson’s 10 interceptions, or Griffin’s five. But if you compare total turnover percentage (interceptions plus fumbles divided by attempts, sacks, and rushing attempts), it’s a much different picture. Luck finished the regular season at 3.8% and Griffin and Wilson both finished at 3.3%. When you factor in offensive styles, help, and the responsibility Luck shouldered, it’s a negligible difference at worst.
- Anybody who bases their arguments on the numbers without taking them into context doesn’t deserve a vote. You can still differ in opinion, based on what you think is more valuable, how you define the ROY award, etc. However, to simply ignore context is completely irresponsible.
Verdict- Deserving, but I disagree with the vote spread and winner
Defensive Player of the Year- J.J. Watt
As much of a lock as there was this season, the fact that even one vote was for another player is a joke. Von Miller is possibly my favorite defensive player right now, but Watt was in a historic class this season. I have no doubt we’ll see both these players in the mix for the award in the future.
Verdict- Correct
MVP, Offensive Player of the Year, and Comeback Player of the Year- Adrian Peterson and Peyton Manning
All three of these awards had just two competitors, and it was a close call for all three of them. Here’s my take.
Comeback Player of the Year
Look, both players had a good case for this award, but it comes down to one thing for me.
Generally, when you think comeback player you’re thinking of coming back from something that occurred the previous year, whether it was an injury, extenuating circumstances, or just a bad year. Manning was out for the entire year, contemplated retirement, and moved across the country. Peterson recovered from an injury that he sustained during the LAST game of the 2011 season.
Peterson had an incredible recovery, and a great year, but he’s not coming back from last season like Manning was.
Verdict- Correct
Offensive Player of the Year
Peterson taking this award home was the right call. Sure, Manning had a very good year, one of the best in his career (and the best by a QB this season), but Peterson’s year was historic. It was a year that we’ll look back on and remember in 20 years. Manning’s wasn’t even his best year, while Peterson’s was the best since Dickerson set the record.
Verdict- Correct
Most Valuable Player
This one I have issue with for several reasons.
- If you’re not already aware, use Google and find the plethora of articles and studies discussing the relative value of a QB compared to a RB. You would have to have a transcendent season as a RB in today’s league to come anywhere near an elite quarterback’s value. Peterson’s season is close, but still not enough, for reasons I’ll explain.
- First, Peterson wasn’t even his own team’s MVP for the first half of the season. That award goes to Percy Harvin. So, when people say “Adrian Peterson dragged the Vikings to the playoffs,” remember that they started 5-2 largely because of Harvin.
- Second, the value of Peterson relative to his own quarterback was evident at the end of the season. During Week 17, with Christian Ponder at the helm, the Vikings scored 37 points and beat the Packers to get into the playoffs. Peterson was dominant, running for nearly 200 yards and a touchdown. Just tone week later, with Joe Webb at quarterback, Peterson ran for just 99 yards and the Packers limited the Vikings to 10 points (and about 150 less total yards).
Look, if you’re bound and determined to give the award to someone not named Peyton Manning, I get it, this as good of a year as you’re going to get. But it doesn’t change the fact that Manning is going to be more valuable to any team than any running back will be in today’s NFL.
Verdict- Heck of a year for Peterson, but the award should have been Manning’s.
Gee, if this article wasn't so well written, I would have thought I had penned it myself.
I totally agree with everything you wrote. Except for perhaps your Rookie of the Year assessment. I will flat out say that RGIII was not deserving of the award when you consider the competition he was up against. And he had a great season, but he should have been a distant third to Wilson and Luck. East coast bias... um, yes!
(And I freely admit that I'm VERY biased, but i just don't believe Peyton is getting enough credit for what he accomplished. New town, new team, off a whole year, coming back from an injury that no other QB has had to deal with... You correctly say that Peterson's year was historic. But what #18 did was unpresidented. Perhaps because there is nothing to compare to what he accomplished, it is going under appreciated. Or maybe, it is such an example of his unrivaled greatness, that people just don't want to acknowledge it.)
@DougEngland I wrote elsewhere that Peyton's best quality is his consistency of play. For other people, that translates to him being boring.
What? Peyton had another MVP-like season? Well, he already has FOUR, so we'll just give it to Adrian Peterson (and he's now come in 2nd in MVP voting three times).
I was asking hypothetically that if Harvin doesn't end up on IR, does Peterson still get MVP? Hmm...
As for Luck vs. RG III vs. Wilson, it seems as if the voters value flash and big city QBs over the hard working consistency of Luck. I honestly wonder how many of the voters actually watched all of Luck's games. Seven game-winning drives in his rookie season, are you kidding me?!
It was interesting, during the video of the three QBs before they gave the award to RG III, they showed all of the stats for each of them and noted that RG III had 27 total touchdowns, but Luck only had 23 touchdowns (they don't say he actually had 28 total). I thought that was pretty lame and misleading.
I agree with your opinions with a tiny exception which is that Peyton and AP should have shared the Comeback Player of the Year award. Peyton should have definitely been the MVP.
Best rookie season: Wilson
Most Valuable Rookie: Luck
Most Hype on ESPN: RG3
Also the fact that a running back is called the most valuable player in the nfl is joke. Peterson might be the best player in the nfl right now but he is a lot closer to the 33rd most valuable player than to the 1st
@jopat I don't think AP should have been the MVP but if you think he is closer to the 33rd most valuable player than the 1st you are insane. It was not perfectly said. Everything else I agree with completely, but it's pretty clear that without Adrian Peterson the Vikings don't even sniff the playoffs. A few QBs and MAYBE a couple defensive players belong ahead of him, but judging solely off this year I would definitely put him in the top 10 at minimum.
@MNColtsfan Definitely a fair point to make, I just think that when you look at how he played against the Packers in the first 2 meetings with a competent QB compared to how he played with Webb it really is tough to say he is more valuable than most QBs. Also AP got off to a very pedestrian start and Percy carried the vikings to a 5-1 record. For sure not trying to take anything away from AP though, in my opinion he is the best player in the NFL right now
@jopat Yeah I can agree with that, and I would have voted Peyton MVP over Peterson, but when you started throwing the number 33 around I got a little defensive for AP. I just don't feel like there are that many QBs who have that same value considering that most Vikings fans honestly don't consider Ponder all that competent of a QB. He definitely improved but for a steady portion of the season AP's yards per carry were greater than Ponder's YPA and he had multiple sub-100 yard performances. Part of that is the receivers but Ponder's play in the last packers game definitely made a lot of people forget just how dreadful he was in the middle of the year when AP was at his most dominant.
