While the NFL has yet to release its award winners, Pro Football Focus has already crowned their MVP – Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson.
PFF recently created a WAR (wins above replacement) metric, which allows comparison between all players and determines who was the most valuable to their team.
Wilson was the 2019 WAR leader in a landslide, accruing a WAR of 4.08 – making him roughly four wins better than a replacement-level quarterback.
Patrick Mahomes finished second with a WAR of 2.96, followed by Dak Prescott (2.40) Aaron Rodgers (2.38) and Lamar Jackson (2.29).
Wilson had the highest grade (91.2) of any quarterback in the league as well, and of course, finished with an excellent 31-to-five touchdown-to-interception ratio while leading the Seahawks to an 11-5 record.
While most believe the MVP award will go to Jackson, PFF explains why their calculations paint Wilson as the far more valuable player.
“While Jackson had an entire offense built around his strengths and had a coaching staff that embraced analytics to extend drives and steal fine winning margins, Wilson was dealing with a situation that consistently put him behind the eight ball then asked him to dig the team out of a hole,” PFF writer Sam Monson wrote. “The fact that he was able to do just that as consistently as he did only stands testament to his MVP-caliber season.”
The NFL will announce the MVP winner on February 1.
