Historically, including the two times Mahomes has actually won the MVP, the award goes to the quarterback with the gaudiest stats and highlight reel performances.
That's a big reason why, despite his regularly disappearing in the playoffs, Lamar Jackson will be a perennial MVP candidate (until the day he has to retire two seasons from now because his body was snapped in half).
And certainly going by that standard, Lamar should be a frontrunner again this year, alongside Josh Allen. Both QBs are putting up huge stats and making insane plays.
But the QB doing the heaviest lifting this season happens to be the same one who is undefeated.
We saw what happens when a really good QB is deprived of his best weapons yesterday. It was Brock Purdy, and he was largely useless.
Mahomes has made plenty of mistakes but if he cuts down on his most egregious errors, and keeps willing this team to victory after victory, then I absolutely think you have to look at him as MVP. The award is "Most Valuable Player," and Mahomes has proven that even if you kneecap the skill positions all over his offense, he (along with Reid's elite gameplanning) can lead his team to victory after victory.
Naturally, he doesn't care, because he only cares about Super Bowls.
But this guy is the GOAT, and he needs to have a trophy case proving that. [Reply]
Traditionally the MVP has gone to the QB whom had the best stats of the #1 seeded teams.
It's why Lamar Jackson, while not having the best stats, won MVP last year.
It'll be interesting to see how this plays out as we're in the driver's seat for the #1 seed at the moment, while our QB has been rather ordinary. [Reply]
Originally Posted by myselff77:
Pretty sure Reid found an old copy of Schottenheimer's playbook. Unless something changes with the roster, the Martyball era is here with the added advantage of unleashing Mahomes in case of emergency.
The Marty Ball is here for a few reasons.
1. Our Oline has been "meh" in pass protection"
2. Our receiving group is depleted.
3. Mahomes isn't seeing the field well or throwing well either. And he really hasn't been for awhile now. [Reply]
I talked about this during the game with some friends…
IF we go undefeated, absolutely Mahomes is in the conversation for MVP, but that’s what it’ll take this year for him to get the recognition without big stat lines. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Gary Cooper:
In hindsight, having an elite QB would be better than a top flight defense and a running game with Bono/Grbac throwing passes in the playoffs.
Maybe not at the time.
But it's possible, I'll grant you.
I won't say Marty is the reason he doesn't have a Super Bowl ring. Bad luck can certainly keep some great coaches from getting one (though there's a reason Marty is the first one to come to mind).
However, there's a difference between 'Doesn't have a ring' and 'loses 3/4 of his playoff games'.
Marty went 5-13 in the post-season, fellas. That's AWFUL. That's not bad luck, that's bad coaching.
I mean just go through the ranks of coaching wins. Lets set the cut-off at 100 wins (that's a damn good, but not great career).
There are just a handful of dudes with playoff records as bad/worse than Marty.
Steve Owen: 2-8
Marvin Lewis: 0-7
Jim Mora: 0-6
Sid Gilman: 1-5
George Allen: 2-7
Steve Owen coached in the 30s. George Allen at least won a conference championship.
So you've got Marty, Marvin, Mora and Sid Gilman.
Those...uh...aren't great coaches. And I'm hard pressed to say the rest of that group was even good. [Reply]
Being 6-0 and winning with clutchness late means it has bought Mahomes a chance to still make it happen. Just think it's gonna require an insane TD-INT ratio the rest of the way. [Reply]
I’m confident the INTs are going to really slow down. Each of the last 3 in the last two games are just bad luck. He hasn’t had the same issues as the first four games. Now if he can get on a roll with TDs to go with that he can become a legitimate MVP candidate again. [Reply]
Lamar won last year because he put up decent stats but was the QB of the best team in the league. Mahomes doesn’t need to lead the league in most passing stats to win MVP, but he needs to do better than what he’s shown so far this year. [Reply]
Originally Posted by mr. tegu:
I’m confident the INTs are going to really slow down. Each of the last 3 in the last two games are just bad luck. He hasn’t had the same issues as the first four games. Now if he can get on a roll with TDs to go with that he can become a legitimate MVP candidate again.
He's mentioned this, but if he hits the passes that he has available, the ints will come down.
The 2nd pick, for instance, just flat doesn't happen if he hits the deep ball to Worthy 2 plays previously. The pick was bad luck but it was bad play that put him in that position to begin with.
And heck, the first pick may not happen if he doesn't take the sack the play before.
Some of those interceptions will always be there, but a lot of them will go away if the plays AROUND them get cleaned up. And with the team generally being efficient (though not explosive), they are executing more often than they aren't. [Reply]
Give him it. As far as I'm concerned, like LeBron in his prime, he should get it every season.
The stats aren't going to be there this year, but that is for reasons largely out of his control (i.e. having the worst group of WRs in the league after virtually all of his weapons got hurt). He remains the best player in football when it matters. [Reply]