The MVP at this point

[Bigdaddyburch]

Peyton Manning wins the MVP every time there's no other true outstanding player. Now he's doing it on a new team coming back from an injury. This was a lock before the season.

Wrong. Have you seen the numbers Palmer is putting up? Didn't think so. Might want to check them out. Another who will prolly end up winning it is Brady. He IS the Pats. I just dont see how anyone has a shot over either of those 2.

[Vinny642]

No AP??

[macc]

I like Payton as much as the next guy but how is he getting that much more love then Andrew Luck? Let's remember the Broncos were a playoff team last year. The Colts were the worst team in the league last year to now a 6-3 record. How does Luck only have 3 votes?

[neovenator250]

I like Payton as much as the next guy but how is he getting that much more love then Andrew Luck? Let's remember the Broncos were a playoff team last year. The Colts were the worst team in the league last year to now a 6-3 record. How does Luck only have 3 votes?

stats. Peyton has 21 TD passes. Luck has 10.

[kevin13697]

Wrong. Have you seen the numbers Palmer is putting up? Didn't think so. Might want to check them out. Another who will prolly end up winning it is Brady. He IS the Pats. I just dont see how anyone has a shot over either of those 2.

Gronk Hernandez Welker Lloyd Branch Edelman Ridley Woodhead
Brady has a lot of targets in NE

[THE GIPPER]

How is Brady being overlooked so much?

[neovenator250]

How is Brady being overlooked so much?

everyone is so used to seeing him perform week in and week out for so long that we're desensitized to it by now

[Bravo95]

Theyre superior this year. Plain and simple. What makes either defense better then the falcons. Falcons have allowed less points then both. And the packers live off turnovers to, although not as much this year. And no, their pass rushers arent as good as atlantas, especially denver. If jennings was healthy, I would agree. But with jennings and nelson out its really not close. Im a huge packers fan, but theyre receiiving core is slightly overrated by other fans.

It's simply not that cut and dry. I'll just make a few quick points:

1. The Broncos' pass rush is better than the Falcons. Mike Nolan really only has John Abraham, who is on a snap count because of his age, so Nolan has to use creative blitzes to get pressure.

2. Through 10 weeks, Ryan has yet to actually lose a game for his team. No one can say that about the other candidates to the point where you can exclude him from the convo. He has either performed good-to-great (even in last week's loss), or when he was off his game, still drove them down field for the game-winning score. Most of those close games were about the Falcons' offensive line sucking, which brings me to the next point...

3. PFF has the Falcons' OL ranked 20th, while nearly all of the other MVP candidates have blockers ranked near the top of this list. They even lay out the case for him in the first sentence:

Part of why Matt Ryan is having an MVP year is that he’s handling pressure and overcoming a line that isn’t making running the ball all that viable.

http://www.profootballfocus.com/blog...k-10-update/2/

[ColtsSpursTerps]

AP is more than legitimate candidate, but it's gotta be
1a: Peyton Manning
1b: Aaron Rodgers

[bosox3431]

It's simply not that cut and dry. I'll just make a few quick points:

1. The Broncos' pass rush is better than the Falcons. Mike Nolan really only has John Abraham, who is on a snap count because of his age, so Nolan has to use creative blitzes to get pressure.

2. Through 10 weeks, Ryan has yet to actually lose a game for his team. No one can say that about the other candidates to the point where you can exclude him from the convo. He has either performed good-to-great (even in last week's loss), or when he was off his game, still drove them down field for the game-winning score. Most of those close games were about the Falcons' offensive line sucking, which brings me to the next point...

3. PFF has the Falcons' OL ranked 20th, while nearly all of the other MVP candidates have blockers ranked near the top of this list. They even lay out the case for him in the first sentence:

http://www.profootballfocus.com/blog...k-10-update/2/

How has rodgers lost a game for the packers and ryan hasnt? Ryans lone pick against the saints led to a td. Falcons lost by 4. Factor in falcons were in fg range, he cost his team at least 3 points and instead the saints got 7. So if rodgers has lost a game for his team this year, so has ryan.

He did not play good against oakland ll. The apprently horrible team surrounding ryan must have showed up and played good that week.

[Bravo95]

How has rodgers lost a game for the packers and ryan hasnt? Ryans lone pick against the saints led to a td. Falcons lost by 4. Factor in falcons were in fg range, he cost his team at least 3 points and instead the saints got 7. So if rodgers has lost a game for his team this year, so has ryan.

He did not play good against oakland ll. The apprently horrible team surrounding ryan must have showed up and played good that week.

No disrespect intended but the bold proves you don't know what you're talking about and likely didn't even watch.

The Falcons were nowhere near being in FG range on the pick. It was 3rd and Long from their own 29 yard line and Ryan threw a long bomb to their 4th string WR Drew Davis who was running a deep post IIRC. It should have been an easy jump ball but the DB got position on the kid so New Orleans took over on their side of the field, inside the Saints' 20 yard line. See for yourself (Atlanta's first drive of the 3Q): http://espn.go.com/nfl/playbyplay?ga...11018&period=3

An objective Saints fan will tell you they won because #1. No one could cover Jimmy Graham since Sean Weatherspoon did not play (badly sprained ankle), #2. They ran the football very well, and #3. Their usually porous front-7 dominated the Falcons' up front all game, specifically on the goal line towards the end when Atlanta had a chance to take the lead for good yet the OL got zero push at the 1-yard line and slow-as-molasses Turner was stuffed as he often does. He finished with 15 yards on 13 carries, so the ground game was non-existent. That they still made it a shootout and had a chance to win was because of Ryan, who threw for 411 yards and had a QB Rating over 100 in the game.

Against the Raiders: Oakland's defense came into that game having gotten only 3 sacks and 1 pick all year, but once again, the Falcons lines got dominated on both sides. PFF has it in their recap you can see here under Game Notes:

The 10 quarterback hits recorded by the Raiders’ defense in this game nearly doubled their season total. In their first four games they recorded only 14.

So much like the Saints game, Atlanta's OL couldn't handle another opposing front seven that hadn't done much of anything all year. The ground game wasn't a factor against Oakland either (Turner had 33 yards on 11 carries), and it was all up to Ryan if they were gonna win, but they did. As I said in my previous post...

or when [Ryan] was off his game, still drove them down field for the game-winning score.

...and that's exactly what happened. He started from their own 20 with :40 seconds left and no timeouts, took them 43 yards, GW FG is good, drive home safely. I get that you are defending your guy, but the bottom line has not changed: No one can say the same thing about all other legit candidates and dismiss Ryan because those guys have better lines, a better ground game, or just blew it themselves. Ryan's blockers and backs have pretty much sucked all year yet he still has them in position to get home field advantage (despite the fact that a lot of people didn't even have them making the playoffs this season) which puts him firmly in the MVP discussion as nearly every NFL writer will tell you.

Besides, let's be honest: If Rodgers had Ryan's exact stats, had outplayed/beaten Manning head to head, and guided your team to the #1 seed at this point, I guarantee you would be defending your guy as the clear-cut leader for this award -- whereas I'm not even going THAT far with Ryan, just saying he has as good of a case for it as anyone else. Some stats favor Ryan, some favor other guys. Make no mistake, I respect what Rodgers is doing, but end-all-be-all statements by anyone to completely exclude Ryan is just homer talk or some sort of agenda.

[Ramon Nivar]

The Falcons O-Line really does suck. It's just overshadowed by record levels of sucking by the media friendly Eagles and that laughing stock of a Cardinals line.

[krazylegz]

two man race at this point between peyton manning and AP

[Dcup]

Nelson has been hurt.

Nobody thought Cobb and James were good until Rodgers helped them fill the stat sheets.

Finley IS the most overrated TE in the league.

Gimme a break.

Even if Jones and Cobb and FInley got hurt, whoever else played, you all would just pretend their great too. It doesn't matter.

Fixed.

On topic, of course I have Rodgers, but in all honesty I have only seen Peyton play twice versus Rodgers all nine times. I just think that Rodgers is superior skill wise and it shows up in games propelling GB to victory.

The Broncos defense is much better than GB's and I just think that he earns more clout with all he does for the team.

Nothing against Peyton, but Rodgers is better right now.

Just my opinion.

[TheVicster]

Fixed.

On topic, of course I have Rodgers, but in all honesty I have only seen Peyton play twice versus Rodgers all nine times. I just think that Rodgers is superior skill wise and it shows up in games propelling GB to victory.

The Broncos defense is much better than GB's and I just think that he earns more clout with all he does for the team.

Nothing against Peyton, but Rodgers is better right now.

Just my opinion.

What does how manning and Rodgers playmagainstmeach other have to do with the MVP award? And if you think Rodgers has better skills than manning, all I can say is.....