Transcript of Week 13 MVP Ladder: Is it a Three-Man Race?

Alright. Each week, I want to go over where we're at in the MVP rankings as of right now. Just a little bit of a a snapshot going from 5 to 1. If you're an Associated Press voter, you do vote for 5 different players. And so that to me is really interesting because the the 3, 4, 5 spot, like, it's intriguing.

If you wanna start with your ladder, I'll listen to to you first, and and we'll go back and forth. Let's go for it.

Do we go pick by pick, or do we go all 5?

No. Just go for it.

Just give

me your whole 5.

Alright. Number 5, Joe Burrow. Despite the fact that the Bengals stink, he has not stunk. 3 3,337 passing yards, 35 touchdown interception ratio. He's played excellent football.

If they were a winning football team, he'd be very much in the conversation right now. So I'm still gonna give him his flowers, consideration, honorable mention, whatever you want it to be. He's number 5 for me.

Okay. I thought about that. And now I changed my mind. I do wanna go back and forth.

That would be better. Yes.

I thought about that. He was probably 5 or 6 for me. I ended up going Justin Jefferson as my number 5.

Considered it.

Joe Burrow's been awesome this year. He's clearly 1 of the top 5 quarterbacks in the NFL. That that last game he had was so typical of a season because he played excellent. You can't blame almost anything on him. And yet, like and yet he was involved with the pick 6 and involved with a couple other turnovers.

There's always these little and yet so I I do think there's a difference between voting for all pro and voting for MVP. I do think MVP has to do with with helping your team win and as much as it's the rest of the team that's let him down because of that, he's had to do too much. I'm just picking nits. I mean, he, to me, is my number,

you know, 3 quarterbacks. Right there. You're picking nits.

Right. He's my number 3 quarterback in the league. I just think for my MVP ladder, I'd rather go with other I have a couple other positions.

Okay. So you're gonna go with Jefferson. Right? And and I'm gonna jump in front real quick because Yeah. Since we're comparing this to Burrow, Jefferson has been all but eliminated from a few games recently because they know how much Sam Darnold would depend on.

He played a big part in that comeback win over the Cardinals. But I know that's that is typical of football at times, but to make a receiver an MVP candidate, I think

he got a little bit of he's 5. That's why he's 5. He it's a big drop off from the top top 3, especially. Yes. He's still second in the league in receiving yards.

And when I think of value and how important he is, he is more important than their quarterback, for instance. And the gravity that he has, you see that week after week after week. The whole point of every game plan is to stop James. I mean, to stop Justin Jefferson and how much attention he gets, and they still find a way to get him a 100 yards. He's still second in in the NFL to Ja'Marr Chase.

So he is my number 5. Give me your number 4.

Mhmm. My number 4 you know, I'm thinking about Ja'Marr Chase's candidacy, but but I already said Joe Burrow. My number 4 is gonna be Derek Henry. It's almost chalk at this point, but, I mean, he's had a hell of a year, you know, with the Ravens his first year in Baltimore. He's got 1400, and 7 yards rushing, 13 touchdowns.

He's chipped in a 125 receiving yards. I mean, he has balanced this offense out so well with Lamar Jackson. It's made this rushing attack even more potent than it was in the past with when they had Gus Edwards and, you know, those types. And, I mean, he's been fan this is a guy who should be out of gas. Like, he's approaching 30.

He's had an incredible amount of carries going back to his days at Alabama. This shouldn't be happening. It's like that old tweet that says, LeBron's gonna be 35 soon. We're almost done with this. And then they're not.

It's the same thing. So I he won't win it. And I think part of that is because he's on the same team as my maybe next guy on the ladder. We'll see. But at the same time, he's had such a phenomenal year at this age with this team.

I can't help but recognize him.

I like that you didn't say Lamar's name there as if Rashad Bateman was potentially coming up

Jay Flowers. Like a

like, maybe Ronnie Stanley if you wanted to get spicy. I didn't have Henry. You know, that that's a totally valid guy to have in your top 5. And I think if the season ended today, he would get some top 5 votes. I I I love that.

Now that we end up seeing, like, a top 10 of the MVP rankings. The Lamar factor to me, Lamar is helping Henry even more than vice versa in this particular case. And so he just got knocked off a little bit, but totally great pick. I have Paredes Soule, number 4. I've been banging the drum for him as an offensive player of the year candidate.

So I'll throw him here in the MVP as well. I I think it's totally fine to make the award what you want. And to me, he is representing the Lions on some level and that offensive line on some level, but also he's the best at what he does in the entire NFL. And so I think it's totally fair if voters wanna put him on their ballot. He's my number 4.

You know, I think you've often said it, and you're representing it right now. Be the change you wanna see in the world. That's what

I'm saying.

Throwing an offensive lineman in there. Look. You're speaking to my heart. I just know it's never gonna happen. But if you Why not?

We're gonna treat it this way. I know. If you wanna treat it this way, we can make let's make everybody else think this way. Oh, I'm so bored with that.

I know I know you're out there. Josh Dubow, if that's how you pronounce it, the Associated Press, he listens. Can I get a vote? Please. Or Please.

Or at least maybe this will influence some voters. Who knows?

1 for the pod?

Why not? Yeah. I'll I'll take I mean, when I was at NBC, I'm not gonna name names, but let's say some people had votes there that didn't follow football that closely.

Yes. And

it got passed around a little bit. So I did I did contribute sometimes, to, to some of those votes. You could probably guess. Alright. Give me your number 3.

It it it's clear.

My number 3 is gonna be Lamar. And, you know, I think you make a great point that Henry and Lamar I I think they'll cancel each other out ultimately. At 1 point, probably in about a month ago, I felt Lamar was almost running away with it. And we've seen some other players rise toward the cream of the crop here and, make it very interesting. But when you look statistically, oh, man.

It's tough. Like, it's tough to not have him in there. 3,290 passing yards, 29 to 3 touchdown interception ratio. He's got 678 yards rushing and and 3 rushing touchdowns. I mean, he's doing it all.

He really is. It's just that he also has another candidate on his roster that's gonna make it a little more difficult, and they're not as consistent as a team as I think that most people would want from an MVP candidate. Now we still have these remaining weeks before we decide that, but I and he's he's definitely gonna be in the running, I think.

Yeah. You can you can look at different stats. Like, he's he's, I think, 4th in QBR. It depends. You know, is maybe not, like, quite as high, and yet he's clearly better than he was a year ago when he won the MVP.

Like, there's no question to me. I think he's a very strong third and absolutely has a good chance to win the MVP still. If he's the best player over the next 5 weeks by a decent margin, then he's gonna win it in my mind.

That's how he did it last year.

Right. The 5 losses to me does not eliminate him. He he's just been fantastic. Who has played the position, you know, at at the most consistent level? I actually think that's Josh Allen for me who, you know, spoiler alert, is ahead.

But Lamar at his best, I think, has been the very best this year. So he's number 3 and he's close. I'm gonna throw my 2 out there. I bet it's you know, we have the same final 2. I have Saquon Barkley as my 2.

I I went back and forth with this. I don't wanna get caught up with the whole word value valuable.

It's in the name.

I get it. But that's sort of where I went with Sewell too. You can decide how you wanna interpret it. Yeah. If you're voting Barkley, I I do think you're you're partly voting for the Eagles running game in the offensive line in a way too.

But that he just absolutely supercharged it. He is playing at a level at this position that we haven't seen since LeDani and Tomlinson, Marshall Faulk, you know, Adrian Peterson and his MVP. Or, like, that is what he's doing right now. Maybe even better than some of those years. So it it's hard for me to not put him number 1.

I really struggled because that's how special Yuri is having. It's 1 a, 1 b for me, but Saquon for me is number 2.

We're gonna invert these because I have Alan at number 2, And it doesn't really have to do with the numbers as much as what we've talked about so much on this show, which is how he is just a game changing talent for these Bills who can win in a number of different ways, and he can succeed in a number of different ways. He can throw the ball all over the yard. He's the most effective running running quarterback in the NFL, as you've said many times. And then they go out there and drop a ton of points on a snowy night against the 40 niners, which just kind of, you know, adds an exclamation point to what we've talked about for a while here. I also think that he's done a really good job of overcoming the personnel changes, which is what we talked about a lot early in the season when they ran into some bumps in the road, and now they're just cruising.

And he's obviously at the center of it. But since you went you you went Saquon too and I went Alan too, I'm just gonna tell you right now, Saquon's number 1 for me. So if you wanna get back and forth about the comparing these 2, I will happily point out that while you're absolutely right about, you know, incorporating the offensive line of that, we could talk about the Bills offensive line and how well they've protected Allen for most of this season. Their incorporation of the running game, which is vastly different than where they were last year's basically, since Joe Brady took over, they've been a different offense. And and James Cook has factored into that little bit of Ray Davis too.

Shout out to Ray Davis. But when I look at the Eagles and I look at Saquon Barkley, I watch an offense that lost Jason Kelsey this offseason, lost Isaac Seamala, which okay. Near replacement level guard if you wanna talk about him like that. They replaced him with McKay Becton. They replaced Kelsey with Cam Jurgens.

Okay? They've dealt with injuries in the offensive line at times. And yet Saquon has looked head and shoulders, knees and toes, and a 10 foot wall outside higher and better than where they were with Deandre Swift, where they were with Miles Sanders. Like, he is I I watch him run every week and I think, God, I wish he wouldn't have spent all those years in New York. I feel like we were robbed of a surefire Hall of Fame career because of the time he was there.

Now injuries got in the way, of course, too. But he's playing incredible football and closing games and doing a little bit of everything so much that he got a Nike ad for reverse hurdling a guy while wearing Lebron's. Okay? This is my MVP. If he continues at this rate, slam dunk MVP for me.

And I don't care that he's a running back. I'm taking it.

All great points. It's all fair. It's why at this point in time where I totally get it. Maybe I'm baking in that. Can he keep this up?

It's such a crazy pace. It's not just the 70 yard runs to ice the games. It's the 9 yard runs that should have been 4 just over and over. Yes. He's special.

He could make the hall of fame, by the way, Shook. I think he's on I think he's on pace for it. Like But

it would have been guaranteed by now.

The the numbers are gonna have to come down with running backs kinda like the the bar went up with quarterbacks. You know what I mean? Yeah. And I because he's gonna be if if he's 1 of the 2 or 3 best at his position over an 8 year period, let's say, those guys make the hall of fame. And to me, he has a good chance to do that, especially if he can rack up an MVP or an offensive player of the year season this year and and another good season or 2 in Philadelphia.

So I think he has a chance to I just look at Josh Allen and think how valuable he is in the running game and in the red zone and as a receiver.

That's okay.

And I just think that it just puts it over the top there. It's so hard for me to give it to, I guess, a running back when a quarterback is having a a superlative season like this for Josh Allen. But they're 1 a 1 b and it and their MVP race is just getting going. So I I think we can talk about it in future weeks. And it's it's ray it's razor thin because it does matter to me, like, what player what describes the regular season the best, like, in terms of what is the most signature part of this season.

And I think that's to be determined, but say that's an argument for Saquon because

Yeah.

The way the Eagles have been ending these games to me is 1 of the most memorable things we will absolutely remember for years years years. And, he is the key to it all. So you almost convinced me, but it's a good thing it doesn't really matter. It's after week 13. It only matters for this podcast and this video.