The season goes on for the Spectrum Sports Editors in The Sharpest Point, as Jim Byrne took home the fan vote last week in a landslide, while John Norman secured the judge's vote once again. Current scores of the editors are in parenthesis next to their names.
If you want to end or extend Byrne's monopoly on the fan vote, just go to the article at spectrum.buffalo.edu and vote for whom you thought made "the sharpest point."
This Week's Question: Although still very early, who do you forecast as league MVP taking the first four weeks into consideration?
Jim Byrne (4): Rich Gannon, the 2002 NFL Most Valuable Player. What a joke.
The man who deserved to win the MVP last year was undoubtedly the Titans Steve McNair. No question about it. This year, it will be his unless he gets screwed again.
Right now, he has the best quarterback rating in the league with one of 110.9, coming off a game against the Steelers where he completed an unreal 15 of 16 passes in victory. The thing that is truly amazing about him, is that he has no big time weapons at his disposal. He has Eddie George, who is a shell of his former self at running back, and his receivers are Derrick Mason and Drew Bennett, not the most imposing duo in the league.
Compare what he has to work with to Gannon's weapons last year, and the results are absolutely ridiculous. Never mind the fact that the Raiders threw almost every down, but Gannon also had Jerry Rice and Tim Brown at his disposal, two Hall of Fame locks. "Air" McNair was also unable to practice for most of the season due to his debilitating injuries, but he still gutted it out and took his team to the AFC championship game while practically stapled together.
McNair defines what an MVP should be. He is the Tennessee Titans. Without McNair, the Titans would most likely be a 6-10 team, but with him they are Super Bowl contenders.
John Norman (2): Well, the season is only a quarter of the season over, but Priest Holmes is the best player on the league's best team, so he gets my vote as MVP.
He already has seven touchdowns in just four games, is averaging 4.6 yards per carry and is an integral part in the Chiefs' offense. Priest is on pace to score 28 touchdowns this year, two more than Marshall Faulk's NFL record 26 TD's. He is also on track to rush for 1544 and catch 68 balls for 736 yards. Those are MVP numbers if I've ever seen them.
The most important thing is that the Chiefs are 4-0. Holmes is the only serious weapon on the Chiefs. Trent Green has a sub-par quarterback rating of 79.6 with just four touchdowns and five interceptions and the Chief's top receiver, Johnny Morton, has fewer receptions and just 13 yards more than Holmes. Priest is good game in and game out, he is fifth in the league in rushing and unlike most of the leaders (*hint* Jamal Lewis) he has yet to have a ridiculous game.
Darren Riethmiller (0): Hands down Peyton Manning is the MVP so far in this young NFL season. Why? Well because Manning is the most important piece of Indy's puzzle in their 4-0 start.
Statistically Manning's 103.7 passing percentage is third overall in the league behind Steve McNair (injury prone) and Daunte Culpepper. His 67.4 completion percentage and 914 yards passing are in the top echelon of the league. Manning has nine touchdowns (No. 1 in NFL) and only three interceptions so far this year.
Look at it this way: Manning is right now the prototype NFL QB. Sure he doesn't have the speed of a McNabb or Vick, but he is going to sit in the pocket and deliver as promised. Manning is a student of the game. He is still learning - not much, mind you - and pretty soon he is going to be a teacher of the game, if not already.
Without Manning the Colts are nothing; he makes them click. Don't tell me that Brock Huard could guide the Colts into the playoffs if Manning got injured. There's a reason why he was the No. 1 overall pick in the 1998 draft, and he is backing up his hype.
Corey Griswold (0): My nominee for league MVP so far is, well, no one. It is way too early in the season to start with this kind of stuff, and the NFL has illustrated this fact as much over the past few years.
There are some pretty tight teams right now. Minnesota, Kansas City and Denver are all looking strong and winning with both offense and defense. Chances are that these teams, at some point over the next few weeks, will get humbled before some underdog, and then be dropped as the media darlings for some other flavor of the month.
The players are the same way. Drew Bledsoe is a prime example of this. His first half of the year was incredible in 2002. Through week eight, Bledsoe had accumulated 2,500 yards, 16 touchdowns and five interceptions. After that, only 1,859 yards, eight touchdowns, and 10 interceptions.
Judging MVP status through the first half of a season can be foolhardy. Doing it through the first quarter of a season is flat out pointless. Call me if Priest Holmes and Peyton Manning are lighting it up in December and January.
The Verdict (by Special Guest Judge, Former Senior Sports Editor Michael Scott:
Obviously, picking an NFL MVP four (or in some cases three) games into the season is quite difficult. There are still a lot of games to be played, and a lot of injuries that will take their toll as the season progresses.
However, picking an early MVP candidate is the job the panel had ahead of them and John Norman answered the bell Baby Joe Mesi-style. Priest Holmes is the best player in the league right now, and we'll see if he is on the best team this week when two 4-0 teams collide, his Chiefs are home to division-rival Denver. Norman barely edged out Jim Byrne, who made an intelligent case for the underrated Steve McNair. It was Norman's point about Trent Green's anemic quarterback rating and mediocre stable of receivers that put him on top. Right now Holmes is getting the job done, consistently, even though his offense is largely one-dimensional. There aren't too many players in this league that can take a team on their shoulders the way Holmes is right now.
