There’s been a push for JJ Watt to named the MVP this season, and after the season he’s had you’re not going to get any argument from me that he’s not a great football player, maybe even the best player in the entire league this year.
But he’s not the MVP. In fact, they should just go ahead and change the awards around and call the MVP award the “best quarterback” award. Here’s the thing, in 2014 teams in the league are absolutely, 100%, dependent on quality quarterback play, and the rest is less important. Not completely unimportant, but significantly less.
Just look at the “elite” quarterbacks in the league. Who are the top seeds going into the playoffs? Brady, Manning, Rodgers, Wilson. That is not a coincidence. Look at the teams with the top draft picks? Who played QB for them this year? Again, not a coincidence.
Look at all the teams not in the playoffs, including the Texans. How many of them can honestly say that they had fantastic QB play, but other areas kept them out of the playoffs? Even the Saints, who have one of the best in Drew Brees, did not get a very good season from Brees. Teams that got solid, sometimes spectacular, QB play are at the top of the standings, teams who’s QB’s turned the ball over, or were very inconsistent, are not.
For another example, just look at Arizona. When they were getting decent QB play, they combined that with a great defense to jump out to a great record. Since going to their third stringer, the defense isn’t enough to get them in the win column, and they are a pretty big underdog to Carolina, of all teams! Because no one trusts their quarterback.
The bottom line is that the most important driving factor for every team, for better or worse, is the play of their quarterback. How then, could someone playing another position be the league’s Most Valuable Player?
Now if JJ starts playing QB for the Texans on top of everything else, we can talk.
Photo by The Brit_2 
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