I’ve contended for years the NFL — maybe all sports — should do away with the “valuable” portion of the Most Valuable Player distinction. It’s too ambiguous. A literal interpretation of value to a team would likely lead us to identify elite players on bad teams — if that elite player wasn’t there, how bad would they be?
No one wants that, and so, typically, what happens is the best player on the best teams earn that distinction. And the best player is usually the quarterback, so what we end up with is eight consecutive quarterbacks winning the MVP award in the NFL (four of them had won previously prior to that streak), and 16 times since the start of the century (two of them won in 2003).
It doesn’t seem like 2021 is going to be any different. I’m not sure it should be, anyway. We’re seeing outstanding play coming from several quarterbacks in the league, both young and old. Three passers on our list have won it before, two haven’t won it but are still among the highest paid in the league and a few others are going to be very soon.
Oh, and we added some defensive players and a wide receiver, you know, just to add value.
