NFL MVP Watch

12/09/08
NFL MVP Watch
By Michael Porpora for Football Reporters Online

The NFL season thus far has been a roller coaster ride with inconsistent play around the league. As a result of this inconsistent play and no clear cut player emerging as an elite player among the rest, I believe that if the season were to end today, the Giants offensive line should be named, as a collective unit, MVP of the NFL.

As a cohesive unit, the Giants offensive line is the most dominant in football and has led them to the best record in the NFC. They have clinched the NFC East title which is arguably the toughest division in football, with three games still remaining on their schedule. With the leading rushing attack in the NFL averaging over 154 yards per game on the ground, they could be considered the best we’ve seen in quite some time. They are also averaging 4.9 yards per carry and have 20 attempts of 20 yards or more, which are both tops in the league. One of the most unbelievable games of the year for the Giants has to be the game against the Ravens in which they ran for over 200 yards. The most amazing part of that statistic is that the Ravens hadn’t allowed as much as a 100 yard rusher in over 20 games let alone 200 yards on the ground. With the unpredictable play that we’ve seen thus far, the one constant has surely been the Giants offensive line, who has given Eli Manning a great deal of time to throw in the pocket and a three headed running attack that ranks first in the league. The leading candidates for this years MVP has to be Kurt Warner and Drew Brees. They are undoubtedly having great years statistically but the Arizona Cardinals are playing in the weakest division in football and have had some hiccups along the way, one of which was a lackluster performance against the New York Giants. Additionally, the New Orleans Saints will most likely miss the playoffs and it seems a bit unrealistic to hand over the MVP award to a player on an underachieving team that should be in the playoffs but just couldn’t muster up enough wins.
The offensive line of the New York Giants have been together for almost 5 consecutive years and began to hit their stride late last season and have never looked back. The Giants are the best team in football with the best offensive line, and a not too shabby defense as well. To me the Super Bowl once again must go through New York.