All the haywire is gone: The non-MVP hardware discussion

Brand Name

make hers mark
Moderator
SoSH Member
Oct 6, 2010
4,399
Moving the Line
We've got MVP, but why not cover the other awards? We're a better board than to only discuss only quarterback play, right? Figure we'd get some rookies, coaches, and honestly some teams proper recognition or smites. Here's some basic ideas to throw out, add more to the list if you want to.

Offensive Rookie of the Year
Defensive Rookie of the Year
Most Surprising Player
Most Disappointing Player
Most Surprising Team
Most Disappointing Team
Comeback Player of the Year
Comeback Team of the Year
Coach of the Year
Coordinator of the Year
Offensive Player of the Year
Defensive Player of the Year

For me at least, by the order I listed:

Winston, as his 469 DYAR leads all rookies, 15th among all QBs. Furthermore, you look at his line, merely average in Adjusted Sack Rate (15th, at 6.0%). By receivers, and beyond Evans, who can you really trust? Maybe Jackson, but from there it gets awful with Murphy, Humphries, and Dye.

Defensively, my choice is Leonard Williams, though full admit I need help with gamefilm on defense (offense is more my thing), and possible metrics to use. Any suggestions there? It's not Marcus Peters for me because he seems to be that high risk, high reward cornerback a bit. Great if he gets the play, but winds up burned quite a bit, with an Antonio Brown 41 yard score coming to mind (although it is Brown, so I take that with a grain of salt). Unfortunately, couldn't find his burn rate to back this up or deny it, in a larger context.

Most surprising player would have to be Kirk Cousins, because it seemed none of us knew here what the Redskins were getting with him prior to the year, given only 9 prior games started in his career, but wound up getting a winner, especially at the cap hit they paid for him: OvertheCap puts his hit at a mere $778,172. FO's rate stats seem to like him as well, putting him 6th in DVOA and 7th in DYAR, among QBs with 200+ passes.

Disappointing player, the logical choice has to be Peyton, right? I mean, we saw it in the later months of 2014, but he threw more ducks than the entire Oregon campus, not to mention leading the NFL in interceptions (I know that's partly due to luck, but some of those truly can't be). FO has him 36th among qualified quarterbacks in both DVOA and DYAR, with only Nick Foles as worse in both.

Surprising team, what about Kansas City? Not only prior to the season, as almost nobody had them projected to make it in the playoffs, but also in-season, after a terrible 1-5 start, finishing with a strong 10 game win streak, and are really underrated by this board as a whole, especially if New England were to play them next week. FO put them at a projected mean 8.2 wins over the course of the year, good for a solid third in the division (Denver 9.4, San Diego 8.6). Also my comeback team, on account of said start in-season.

Most disappointing team, there are lots of candidates here, but I'm choosing the other Andy Reid connection, with the Eagles. They spent so much on DeMarco Murray (stupidly, but he was still expected to produce above replacement level), brought in a trade that seemed reasonable enough for Kiko Alonso, and had gone 10-6 the past two season. Owner Jeffrey Lurie even claimed they were on the edge of something special prior to the year. Not only did nobody really perform, aside from an under the radar Bradford the past few weeks, but Jason Peters was held on to too long, and looks like a shell of his former self, having had their running backs drop to 2.97 Adjusted Line Yards in tackles through the Left End, 26th in the league.

Comeback player of the Year, this should be Carson Palmer, my MVP pick as well. Led the NFL in DVOA and DYAR, if partially due to surrounding players, as soxfan121 noted in the other thread. Still though, this is a guy who came back from a torn ACL. Yes, we've seen Brady do this in 2009, but Palmer was never this kind of quarterback before, unlike Brady's reputation. He was never higher than 14th in DVOA, which is why this is an absolute astonishment and comeback for me.

Coach of the Year, this is Bill Belichick for the same reason my pick was Arians last year. As DRS pointed out the ManGamesLost tweet, I noticed the following: Not only does New England lead the league in man games lost but they are they still have a bye. Furthermore, no other 12+ win team has half as many man games lost as New England, AND the Patriots have 70 more man games lost compared with the next highest playoff team (Steelers).

Coordinator of the year, this is tough but give me Teryl Austin, the Lions defensive coordinator. Not only do you lose Suh, but you lose DeAndre Levy pretty early on, and your defense rebounds rather nicely, if not overtly seen. Midway through the year, this is not who I would have picked, but it is kind of like Belichick in the sense of making chicken salad with this defense.

Offensive Player of the Year, I really like the Bengals' Andrew Whitworth. Outstanding LT, only 8 penalties all year, and never more than one in any individual game. Also 3rd for Adjusted Line Yards, of team with runs through the left end, offensively speaking.

Defensive Player of the Year: This has to be JJ Watt, right? That defense would nowhere near sniff the Top 10 were in not for him, and the double, triple teams he often commands. The Texans get nowhere with that offense, outside of DeAndre Hopkins, so yeah. Of course, he still puts up the monster numbers with how many people cover him-this to me is not measurable by statistics, but by scheme, in particular opposing offensive line (potentially blocking wideouts, tight ends, backs, etc.) strategy. Always impressive, even if I don't want him chopping wood in the wood to symbolize the quality of my cell phone's service.