At the end of the NFL regular season, the MVP race has boiled down to two men. One is Green Bay's quarterback Aaron Rodgers who is lighting up opposing defenses while throwing more touchdowns than any QB other than five time MVP Peyton Manning and up and coming superstar Andrew Luck. Moreover, Rodgers has led the Packers to their fourth consecutive NFC North title, which he clinched after returning to the game with a calf injury. Upon his return he continued to be a grittily effective passer, and scored a rushing touchdown off of a QB-sneak to lead the team to a 30-20 victory over the Detroit Lions.
Everyone watching that game understood how amazing a performance Rodgers was putting up. In addition to being at the top of the pack for all QB stats, Rodgers also is at his best when injured, or throwing off of his back foot, or scrambling away from defensive penetration. However, we have all been conditioned to recognize offensive ball-handlers levels of success, while we still have trouble noticing a dominant performance on the defensive side of the ball.
That fact is what makes the other MVP frontrunner such an amazing player. J.J. Watt of the Houston Texans is a walking highlight reel. He is anticipated to be the first defensive player since 2008 to even receive a single vote in the AP poll (which is used to pick the MVP) and judging by the videos of his "
awkward TD celebration" and the reports that all he does is live and breathe football it is not his charisma winning him votes. Instead, it is just the formal recognition of a football machine doing its job better than any football machine has been designed to perform. Some of his stats on their own are not unimaginable, but it is the combination of 20.5 sacks, 59 tackles, an interception, four forced fumbles, 5 fumbles returns, a safety, and to top it off he caught 3/3 passes for 3 offensive touchdowns. In short, J.J. Watt is a walking destroyer of Quarterbacks who dream of standing up long enough to throw a football, and we are all realizing that enough to at least have some people vote for him. However, since only two defensive players have ever won the MVP award, all of the semi-related reasons to fault Watt begin to gain even more relative importance.
The largest difference between Rodgers and Watt which is directly comparable is the success of their teams. The Packers as I've pointed out have won their division for the fourth year in a row. The Texans failed to make the playoffs, but they also improved their record by seven wins, the most by any team in the league. That improvement did come in the AFC South, by far the weakest division in the NFL this season, but it was also due in large part to Watt.
Overall, the difficulty in comparing these two players is immense. Also, both players have had MVP-worthy seasons. If this were just a case of an above average QB winning the award because we value offense higher, then I would hope for Watt to win, but it is instead a situation where both of them have carried there teams to wins, and both of them pass the "do I think Holy *&(# regularly when I watch them play" test, which to me is the most important. So now all there is to do is wait for the votes to come in.
The Important Part:
Aaron Rodgers's Sandwich: A Cheeseburger made with a lot of Wisconsin cheddar cheese, because he is the kind of player who can satisfy all your NFL watching hunger for a day, and you don't need to be from Green Bay to appreciate his play.
J.J. Watt's Sandwich: J.J. Watt is the record breaking
Sarnie, because like Watt it is chock-ful-a protein, took a long time and a lot of hard work to create, and probably isn't going to receive the recognition that he truly deserves.
