No, J.J. Watt isn’t winning NFL MVP
By Zac Wassink
J.J. Watt is a special player, but he is not nor does he deserve to be named NFL MVP.
Even casual National Football League fans are well aware that Houston Texans superstar J.J. Watt is a special talent. Watt may very well be the best overall defensive player in pro football this fall. The Cleveland Browns know all about the player’s skills. Watt hit the Browns for a touchdown reception and a a fumble recovery, he nearly blocked two punts on plays that resulted with Watt correctly being flagged for Roughing the Kicker, and Watt abused the offensive line of the Browns throughout the afternoon as the Texans routed the Browns 23-7 in Cleveland.
The hype machine has been churning for Watt unlike ever before during the current campaign. He put pen to paper on a massive contract extension with the Texans earlier this year, a deal that will earn him $51,876,000 guaranteed and potentially over $100 million in total. Watt is featured in several national advertising campaigns. One doesn’t need to review his stats to understand that Watt makes a difference for Houston whenever he takes the field.
Watt is not, however, the Most Valuable Player in the NFL as of November 19, and even suggesting otherwise is downright ridiculous.
Watt doesn’t lead the NFL in any defensive statistic. He is tied with four others in defensive touchdowns with two. He is 2.5 sacks behind league-leader Justin Houston in that category. Watt’s 44 total tackles doesn’t even get him on the front page for that stat.
There is no question that Watt is, when at his best, a game-changer on the defensive side of the football, but this is not Lawrence Taylor we are talking about here. Taylor was an athlete unlike any before him, a player who forced opposing head coaches to alter their game plans leading up to games against the New York Giants. As good as Watt is — and he is very, very good — he isn’t at that level yet. Not close to it if one is being honest on the matter.
Houston’s record ten games into the season suggests that Watt and everybody else on the team’s roster haven’t been all that valuable to the club. The Texans sit at 5-5. They wouldn’t be a playoff team if the regular season ended today. Watt’s limited value to the Texans has nothing to do with talent or what he has and hasn’t done during games.
It has everything to do with where he plays on the field.
I have written it time and time again in NFL MVP pieces for this website, and I will continue to do so for the foreseeable future: Quarterbacks win Most Valuable Player awards in the modern NFL. The rules favor quarterback play and big-time passing attacks that put up monster fantasy football numbers on a weekly basis. You don’t have to like it, but you’re fooling yourself if you don’t believe this to be the lay of the land in 2014.
No single position in all of professionals sports is bigger than NFL quarterback. The best quarterbacks in the league are sports royalty, so much so that it is rare these days for one to enter free agency. Teams are so desperate to have such a quarterback that guys like Andy Dalton, Colin Kaepernick and Jay Cutler, players who have never won anything of merit, are signed long-term (with club options).
Were the ballots to be tallied today, Watt wouldn’t even be a finalist for the 2014 NFL MVP award. Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers would be the leader in the clubhouse. Tom Brady of the New England Patriots would be a close second. Behind them would be the likes of Peyton Manning of the Denver Broncos and Andrew Luck of the Indianapolis Colts. Outside of those quarterbacks, one could throw in Dallas Cowboys running back DeMarco Murray and also Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown if you wanted to mix things up a bit.
A lot would have to go differently for Watt to even be in the discussion for NFL MVP. He would, for starters, have to put up head-turning stats, historic numbers such as two sacks per regular season game. You would have to be able to point to multiple instances when Watt won Houston games, and the Texans would have to be at least a Wild Card team. All of that occurring PLUS no quarterback cementing himself as a legitimate candidate could see Watt sneak up to the top of NFL MVP lists when all was said and done.
Watt raising his level of play, a frightening thought for offensive coaches around the NFL, will not lead the Texans to the postseason. Houston’s playoff hopes this fall will live or die on head coach Bill O’Brien installing Ryan Mallett as the team’s starting quarterback. Mallett played well against the Browns last Sunday, and O’Brien, a known quarterback guru, may have found his QB of the future in the former backup of Tom Brady.
Give Watt all of the praise that he deserves. Name him Defensive Player of the Year if you believe he has won that honor. Save MVP for somebody who has truly earned it.
Watt isn’t there yet, and I wouldn’t bet on him getting there anytime soon.
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