The NFL has glaring issues in their current process of selecting the league MVP. The NFL is a quarterback’s league and the NFL MVP is rightfully slanted toward the position. However, the league is currently witnessing an over-predisposition to awarding a quarterback with league MVP. There isn’t a single quarterback this season who is having a bonafide MVP season. Despite this, multiple ones have been labeled as the front-runner for league MVP because there is an aversion to awarding a non-quarterback the award in 2023.
This is unfair and cheapens the award. League MVP is slowly becoming an award solely for the starting quarterback on the best team. Admittedly, this makes sense when football is broken down to its most rudimentary level. Doing this, however, is highly exclusionary to players – who in the case of this season – are having significantly better, even historic seasons.
Everything Wrong With the NFL MVP Award
Who Should Be Considered Instead
Wide receiver Tyreek Hill and running back Christian McCaffrey should be the frontrunners for the award. Tyreek Hill was on pace for an NFL-first 2,000 receiving yards before an ankle injury cost him a game. Hill has been sublime this season. He’s the most dangerous football player in the league and has been for a while now. Hill is the biggest mismatch since Rob Gronkowski at his apex. Only Calvin Johnson and Randy Moss have created more space and gravity for their teammates than Hill. The Dolphins are the NFL equivalent to a fast break in basketball and Hill is the catalyst.
Hill is the linchpin for one of the most explosive offenses in NFL history. Not only is he their catalyst, but the offense becomes significantly easier to defend without him on the field. That is what an MVP is. This is purely theoretical but the Dolphis losing Hill would be even more detrimental than San Francisco losing Christian McCaffrey
Speaking of McCaffrey, CMC has been straight-up dominant for the 49ers. He tied the NFL record for consecutive games (17) with a TD. This is a record that has stood for six decades. McCaffrey has been a machine that virtually no one has had a code for. CMC is the best player on a historically loaded offense.
Christian McCaffrey and Tyreek Hill are having quintessential MVP-caliber seasons. A quarterback would be running away with the award if he were having a season equivalent to what either of these two are having. The issue is not so much that the award is slanted toward quarterbacks, but rather that pundits are trying to force the award to one who is less deserving than players of another position.
Why the Quarterbacks Are Undeserving
A true MVP would be having a complete season worthy of the award but currently, any hot quarterback is the flavor of the month candidate. The front-runner for MVP has gone from Jalen Hurts to Dak Prescott, to Brock Purdy, and finally to Lamar Jackson. All four of them have had stretches of strong play but not a complete MVP-level season from start to finish. Their MVP candidacies fizzled almost as quickly as they sparked. This is less an indictment of them, but more of a criticism of a flawed process to award any quarterback playing well at the moment.
Lamar Jackson is coming off a five-touchdown performance in which Baltimore completely decimated Miami. This likely cements him as league MVP. Admittedly, that is an MVP-defining moment but voters may be experiencing a prisoner-of-the-moment overreaction to force the award to a quarterback. Most Valuable Player encompasses the entire season and is not solely for a hot stretch. Jackson is phenomenal but he’s not more deserving than Christian McCaffrey or Tyreek Hill.
When fans look back on the 2023 season, the MVP should be who stands out most from it. The players who stand out most are Christian McCaffrey and Tyreek Hill. That should carry significant weight when considering the Most Valuable Player. Quarterback is the most important position on the field and they rightfully should be given an edge for the award. However, voters and pundits should seriously question their inherent aversion to considering non-quarterbacks.
Main Image: Jim Rassol / USA TODAY NETWORK
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