It's so incredible how the Patriots have beat all football fans into submission. All of you guys are ust like "eh, brady gonna brady"
It's pretty much exactly how I felt about the KD GSW which is just frustrated. Frustrated because I know they're beatable and teams can do it but they just...don't, and won't. So oh well I hated when people were like "Pats will win anyway" or "Warriors will win anyway" cuz I knew both teams were beatable but they kept winning anyway cuz other teams didn't prepare or execute so it's just like fuck it, if you can't beat em join em
I’d pick Lamar if the season ended today, but neither is a bad choice and one probably pulls away by the end of the season
The only edge I give Wilson is that the Ravens and Harbaugh have done an amazing job of playing to Jackson's strengths and setting him up for success. Whereas the Seahawks never look like they have any plan except to run the ball and have Wilson draw something up in the dirt when that inevitably fails. I don't think Lamar should be punished for that, though. I'm mostly just venting about how much I fucking hate watching the Seahawks offense until they let Russ take control.
The edge is that Lamar just played a great game and Wilson didn’t play this week. It’s still too close to call.
This. Seahawks are 8-2 and just gained two games on the 49ers and snapped their undefeated streak. Why we acting like the Ravens are going off because of Lamar but the Seahawks aren’t haha...
Also want to say Russ is very overdue for that MVP haha. People seem so excited to crown Lamar early, but what about the guy that started his career with 3 straight playoff appearances and immediately was a contender and didn’t win it? Legion of Boom hasn’t been a thing in awhile now, and for a good two years Wilson & Wagner were their only good players, and they STILL were a winning team. Wilson legit will not let the Seahawks miss the playoffs, even despite how gutted their defense was before this year, despite how little help he gets on the roster with passing the ball between OL and WR, Wilson has got it done and looked elite for 7 years now... basically by himself as the only good offensive player the Seahawks have. And still not won MVP. I see it the opposite of @CarpetElf I want Russ to win cause he’s been a strong MVP candidate for years lol. Meanwhile Lamar, impressive as he is This early, is likely to only continue to get better and deserve it more later on (the same way I feel Russ does now.)
My last point is that reputation & consistency across seasons should matter in MVP imo; without that context one-year- wonders can happen more easily
You still need some extra context to say he’s the team’s “most valuable player.” Offensive player of the year / defensive player of the year is more in directly in line with the context you suggest imo. I see MVP as, which team needs this guy the most? Harbaugh still wins with shit QBs.
I’m being entirely subjective here but if I got to decide what MVP meant... The “most valuable player” may not post the most gaudy yardage numbers, but still be the dominant reason his team scores and stays in games. See: Russell Wilson scoring 35 of the Hawks 39 TDS last year is super; super impressive to me even though Mahomes TD number dwarved Wilson’s. It makes more “sense” to me that a spread offense would be a spread offense... but Wilson scoring all of a RUNNING TEAM’s touchdowns is kinda fucking nuts, and shows how damn efficient he is even with a lot fewer opportunities to unleash the passing game than Mahomes. You put Wilson on a team that hates to pass and doesn’t like giving one “superstar” too much credit, doesn’t give him receivers, drafts purely run blocking linemen who can’t pass protect. And he STILL posts top 5 *passing* numbers even though half his games he barely throws 25 times.
Most Valuable Player to the league. That's Lamar. He's playing at an elite level, his team has been bad lately, hes brought divisional dominance back to Baltimore, and he beat Tom Brady. Crown my son.
If something hasn’t been done it hasn’t been done. @Victor Eremita pointed out that other elite QB have had 2 INT seasons, but that’s finishing with lower numbers of TD - for example, Rodgers throwing only 25 TD means he kinda reeled it in that year, usually he’s a sure bet for 35+. Meanwhile, Wilson is at 23 already and there are 6 games left. That’s 6 games he could start throwing picks... but he’s been so damn hot something tells me he won’t. I think we’re gonna see him finish 36:3 or something fucking ridiculous like that - THAT has not been done. It’s one thing to throw very few INTs playing it safe (see: David Garrard went 18:3 on the Jaguars but that was because he rarely took chances and defenses had their hands full with our TWO elite RBs Taylor and MJD). It’s another thing to dodge 3 guys and throw tight window bombs all the time and STILL be that mistake free. To attack teams aggressively while still being ultra careful with the ball is the best skill a QB can have imo. You can fully trust Wilson to go all out and not hold back. As much as we can try to say Lamar’s running is unprecedented it’s not. Just because we excommunicated Vick for being a shitty person doesn’t mean his impact on the league vanished. The concept of a running QB has existed since Fran Tarkenton, but it proliferated and faster athletes started playing the position because of Vick. Lamar isn’t breaking new ground so much as following in those footsteps in a league with increasingly inflated statistics. While it’s exciting to see a player go against the grain, I don’t agree with the primary argument that Lamar should win MVP because he’s doing something nobody else could do. If Robert Griffin doesn’t tear his ACL and Mike Shanahan stays in a Washington with his prodigy son Kyle as OC? It’s arguable RG3 “breaks this ground” first, and is a 1000 yard rusher from under center while also posting efficient passing numbers... because his running allows him to take limited risks and his big arm allows him easy long touchdowns. That’s legitimately what RG3’s rookie season was like. But did anyone ever really for a second think Griffin was automaticallybetter than Luck or Vick was better than Manning just because they brought something else exotic and hard to defend to the table? I don’t think the narrative works in absolutes like that. Marc Andrews though. That’s the Ravens’ real number 1. They throw to their stud TE more than Brown or Snead. Meanwhile Russ lost Jimmy Graham and made Luke Wilson a solid TE; then he made random ass Will Dissly a stud; then Dissly went to IR so what the fuck does he do? He elevates TE4 Jacob Hollister so much he out here catching clutch, covered TDS against undefeated teams. Russell Wilson could turn a fucking fish into a starting-lineup TE in fantasy football. Brown is literally a younger more explosive / extreme version of Lockett. He’s not that far off from where Lockett was as a player when he first started. Except he’s faster. Metcalf does have absurd raw talent but it’s just that - raw. Dude has not yet learned how to play like the monster he is. His 51% catch rate compared to a rather high volume of targets is very low among starting receivers. Despite his Herculean size he’s actually not that consistent at fighting for jump balls (he can do it but not regularly), he acts more like a speed receiver, except he lacks the agility to separate when the ball arrives so he isn’t consistent at that either. Given how much Russell has worked with receivers who lack nuance in the past, I’m willing to lean towards Metcalf not putting up nearly these numbers if Wilson doesn’t put the ball directly, pinpoint, crosshairs, into his palms most the time.