Sunday, February 14, 2010

Brief MMTMQR: Good Players Only Play for Good Teams, Everyone Knows That

I wish I had more time to make a longer post. Unfortunately I don't right now. But I do have time to briefly marvel at the levels of retardery to which Gregggggggggggggggggggggg (get it?) will stoop.

Tuesday Morning Quarterback Non-Quarterback Non-Running Back NFL MVP: I gave up complaining that the MVP award always goes to a quarterback or running back -- 90 percent of football action occurs away from the ball!

And with players who were undrafted and played their college ball at NAIA schools.

-- and created my own award in 2001. Three years ago, an impressive-looking trophy was added, along with a presentation on media day at the Super Bowl.

Number of recipients who have not been creeped out/annoyed by this process: zero.

"SportsCenter," show the trophy presentation live next year!

Ah, two of ESPN's crappiest institutions in one place at one time. I can only imagine.

This year's finalists were Gary Brackett and Dallas Clark of Indianapolis, Jahri Evans and Darren Sharper of New Orleans; Nick Mangold and Darrelle Revis of Jersey/B; and Sidney Rice and Kevin Williams of Minnesota.

Are you ready for the good stuff?

Only players from the championship round were eligible: My reasoning is that if you would wear the mantle of Most Valuable, you better have created some value.

And again.

Only players from the championship round were eligible: My reasoning is that if you would wear the mantle of Most Valuable, you better have created some value.

And one last time.

Only players from the championship round were eligible: My reasoning is that if you would wear the mantle of Most Valuable, you better have created some value.

Here's a very short list of non QB/RBs who, according to Gregg, did not create value this year:

Andre Johnson
Ryan Clady
Vernon Davis
DeMarcus Ware
Haloti Ngata
Nnamdi Asomugha

Your own in the comments! Oh my God, this man is so fucking dumb.

In addition to watching way too much film of these players, I consulted experts. My oldest son's high school football coach, James Collins,

Ah, presumably coach of the official son of TMQ, the WASPily-named Spenser.

favored Evans, the league's best offensive lineman. Aaron Schatz of Football Outsiders favored Revis, the league's best corner. K.C. Joyner, the Football Scientist -- who actually reviews every snap of every game; he is a brave man --

As opposed to Gregg, who turns on the game, waits for a blitz to not work so he can write about that, notes which coach is wearing more clothing so he can write about that if the team loses, and then goes back to his West Wing DVDs.

favored Clark, because of his disruptive impact on opposing secondaries. Unlike many Pro Bowl voters, all three of my insider sources pay close attention to actual NFL performance, as opposed to hype.

The Pro Bowl voters are a group of questionable intelligence. For my money, though, they ain't got shit on Mr. "If the team that lost on a last second field goal had just run up the middle instead of throwing an incomplete pass on a play with 14 minutes left in the 4th quarter, they would have won because the clock would have expired before the final field goal!" over here.

In conclusion: maybe next year you'll be eligible to receive a dinky trophy from Gregg Easterbrook (in what must be a painfully awkward ceremony) if you just get out there and create some value, Charles Woodson!

11 comments:

slwg said...

If creating value were truly a measure of ability and/or worth, wouldn't Gregggg be in an unemployment line somewhere in Boston?

Biggus Rickus said...

I'll give Gregg running back not being a relatively valuable position, but QBs? The only player who handles the ball every play? Who, if he's good, serves as a secondary on-field play caller? He's going to piss on the contributations of those guys? I'd estimate that a good QB is about twice as valuable as anyone else on an offense.

There are some defensive players who probably get overlooked though. Ray Lewis in his stabby prime was an immensely valuable player. Revis is a great corner, but there are a fairly limited number of ways he can affect a game. Even when Deion Sanders was shutting down half the field, I don't think he could have been dubbed the most valuable player on his teams, let alone the league. I don't know, I guess if you're a remarkably good defender who alines the defense you could have a decent argument that you're relatively more important than most players. I still don't think you'd be as valuable as a great or even good QB.

In summation, fuck Gregg Easterbrook.

Biggus Rickus said...

*aligns

I'm a doofus.

Miserable Bastard said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Miserable Bastard said...

Wow Rickus, considering it was only THIS year that the Jets were able to make it to the final four despite having a QB post the 3rd lowest rating for a full season starter this decade, you might consider that a player like Revis is more valuable to a team than a QB in certain situations. Just saying.

Biggus Rickus said...

I was not arguing that all QBs are more valuable than all other players. I was arguing that good QBs are more valuable than all other players.

Adam said...

If a player besides a QB or RB should be the MVP, then make that argument instead of trying to make some other stupid point like Gregg usually does. What's the point in having an MVP when you qualify it by saying certain positions aren't elegible? Besides, there is a guy on Dallas Clark's team who is pretty good. I think he probably deserves the MVP he won.

I propose a trophy for the undrafted, Division II, non-QB, non-RB, non-WR, non-TE, non-LB MVP. Leonard Weaver really deserves this award!

Dylan said...

But if the Jets had a good QB they quiet possibly could have won the Super Bowl. But if they had a corner better than Dwight Lowry opposite Revis, they still would not have won. Whether or not we like it, QB is 8x more valuable than any other position. Defense is more of a team thing than an individual one. Also, fun fact about Sanchez. He's not even ranked on Scouts inc. on espn.com. I think he got a 20 overall rating. Whereas Brady got a 94 I believe. Kind of ridiculous.

Miserable Bastard said...

Dylan, if the Jets had another good corner, they very possibly could have won the Super Bowl, to say differently is silly. While Strickland was healthy against Indy (he was clearly the 2nd best Jet corner and the key to their nickel), they jumped out to an 11 point lead, and perhaps could have held on to advance to Miami... to face a New Orleans team that they held to 10 offensive points in the Superdome earlier in the year. To speculate either way is conjecture, and to state it as fact is foolish.

Great job on the Scouts Inc rankings. Perhaps if you had dug further you'd have seen that EVERY rookie got a 20 - they were left out of the rankings. Good call. However, Scouts Inc. did have Sanchez scored at 95 heading into the 2009 Draft - I wonder what score they had for Brady entering the 1999 draft? Obviously Sanchez isn't better than Brady, and probably never will be - but it's an illustration of how irrelevant their rankings are to begin with.

Larry B said...

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh SNAPs all over the place in these comments.

Dan said...

I wonder if Greggggg is aware that often times division 1-aa, div 2, div 3, NAIA players were not overlooked, unwanted, mis-judged, poorley evaluated, hated by all dumb coaches, etc... a lot of great and highly regarded high school players go to these schools when their SATs or grades suck and they don't meet NCAA standards. Which sort of takes the shine off of Gregggg's commentary on them. They weren't "unwanted" just dumb