Adrian Peterson: The case against
There are many reasons not to vote for Peterson as MVP this year, but instead to vote him as the Offensive Player of the Year.
Peterson was not the Vikings’ MVP, let alone the league, when the team had a surprise 5-2 start. That was Percy Harvin, who led the league in all-purpose yards before suffering a season-ending injury.
During his all-time great eight-game stretch, Minnesota was only 4-4, which just shows how valuable the quarterback position is. Peterson had amazing games against Seattle and Green Bay, but Minnesota still lost mostly because of Ponder.
The Vikings needed Ponder to come through to make the playoffs, and he did. He actually had good games in wins against playoff competition San Francisco and Houston, which just so happened to be the worst games of the season for Peterson. In both games Peterson finished with exactly 25 carries for 86 yards (3.44 YPC) and no touchdowns.
In the first six weeks, Peterson only finished above 100 yards once, and that was 102 rushing yards in Detroit. Remember, both players had to overcome an injury, but Peterson had a slower start, and his season was just not as consistently great as Manning’s.
In reading Gregg Rosenthal reporting on Aaron Rodgers’ MVP win last season, he had an interesting line. “The last few weeks of the year don’t make the first three months go away,” said Rosenthal.
Yet it sure seems like this December push has put Peterson over the top. Peter King even said Sunday (Week 17 finale) had him change his vote from Manning to Peterson.
Should one game really be the difference in a seasonal award that is supposed to be based on 16 games? Would an extra nine rushing yards make Peterson any more worthy? Would 50 fewer yards make him any less valuable?
People got caught up in the chase for the rushing record, which fell just short, and overlooked the Vikings’ season as a whole. They were not always as reliant on Peterson.
Ponder played better than given credit for. He just had some really atrocious games with few yards. Ponder’s season compares favorably to Joe Flacco’s rookie season (2008), as Ponder finished with 2,935 yards, 18 TD, 12 INT and 81.2 passer rating. He also rushed for 253 yards and two scores.
But at one point this season it was noted that Ponder had a lower passing yards per attempt than Peterson had on the ground. That did not hold true at the end of the season, though it was close. Peterson was 6.03 and Ponder was 6.08 yards per attempt.
Never mentioned in that is Peterson’s poor receiving season. Though he caught 40 out of 48 targets, Peterson had just 217 yards and three dropped passes. The 5.43 yards per reception is tied with Arian Foster (2012) for the fifth worst average in a season in NFL history (min. 40 receptions).
Throwing to Peterson actually brought Ponder’s YPA down from 6.25 to 6.07 this season, but no one acknowledges Peterson’s lack of receiving. It was all about his rushing yards. It could not have been about his touchdowns for obvious reasons.
Quarterbacks have won nine of the last 11 MVP awards, and the last three running back winners all broke the single-season touchdown record. That started at 26 touchdowns from Marshall Faulk back in 2000, and LaDainian Tomlinson scored 31 in 2006. Peterson only had 13 touchdowns this season. It is good for a running back in general, but not for this award.
Peterson has the rushing yards, but his touchdowns do not fit the modern standard for a MVP season. He would rank 11th out of 13 in this list in terms of touchdowns per game.
Just rushing for 2,000 yards is no longer a guarantee of anything. Jamal Lewis did it in 2003 for a 10-6 playoff team, had more right to “his offense is all him” than Peterson, and he received five votes. Chris Johnson rushed for 2,009 yards and had a record 2,509 yards from scrimmage in 2009, and he received zero votes (8-8 and missed the playoffs has something to do with it).
If you had a MVP for the second half of the season, Peterson would be most worthy, but for a 16-game award, he did not have that season-long type of impact this award should be about. It was an incredible second-half finish that chased a record and did get his team into the postseason, but how they started matters too, and Peterson was not in the conversation yet.
at manning getting either comeback or mvp.
