Nov. 12, 2009

Midseason Awards: This MVP pick is no Brees

By Clark Judge | CBSSports.com Senior Writer
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Prisco's Midseason Awards: It's Peyton -- period -- for MVP

Halfway through the season people want to know: Who's better, the Colts or Saints? Peyton Manning or Drew Brees? Jim Caldwell or Sean Payton?

My answer: Ask Bill Belichick.

His Patriots play the undefeated Colts this weekend and the undefeated Saints Nov. 30, and by then you'll have your answer. But some decisions can't wait that long, and I'm talking about our annual midterm awards. We make them. You boo them. The Colts and Saints dominate them. It's as simple as that.

The first half of this season has been a success story about the Colts, Saints and Brett Favre, and I can't wait on Belichick. It's time the deserving are rewarded. So cue the drum roll. Our winners are about to be recognized:

MVP

Peyton Manning, QB, Indianapolis. Tony Dungy is gone. Marvin Harrison is gone. Tom Moore goes from offensive coordinator to consultant. Howard Mudd goes from offensive line coach to consultant. Still, nobody beats the Colts. Why? Look no farther than No. 18. I didn't think it was possible, but Manning is having the best season of a Hall of Fame career. Seven 300-yard games. Sixteen touchdown passes. More than 2,500 yards. Most important: no losses.

2. Drew Brees, QB, New Orleans
3. Brett Favre, QB, Minnesota

Offensive MVP

Chris Johnson, RB, Tennessee. If it weren't for this guy there would be no reason to remember the Titans. He has 12 runs of 20 or more yards and six of 40 or better. He scored a 91-yard touchdown. He scored an 89-yard touchdown. He scored a 69-yard touchdown. He not only leads the NFL in rushing, he leads Adrian Peterson by 175 yards. Plus, he averages a mind-boggling 6.7 yards per carry. What amazes me about this guy is that he's the focus of every defense that plays Tennessee, yet still runs through opponents with alarming regularity.

2. Peyton Manning, QB, Indianapolis
3. (tie) Drew Brees, QB, New Orleans; Matt Schaub, QB, Houston; Maurice Jones-Drew, RB, Jacksonville.

Defensive MVP

Jared Allen, DE, Minnesota. I watched him overwhelm Baltimore's Michael Oher. Then I watched him run through Oher and whoever served as the cavalry. Nobody could handle him. The guy is relentless and almost impossible to stop. He sacks the quarterback. He forces fumbles. He can play the run. He disrupts the pocket. He's a one-man demolition derby, and if you're going to stop Drew Brees you better have a weapon like this on pass defense.

2. Darren Sharper, S, New Orleans
3. Elvis Dumervil, LB, Denver

Offensive rookie

Percy Harvin, WR, Minnesota. He returns kicks. He makes big catches. He makes big runs. He is explosive. He is electrifying. And he is awfully, awfully good. Harvin is just another reason to like the Minnesota Vikings when they have the football. He fell down the draft board because of character issues, but Minnesota took a chance on him after receivers coach George Stewart assured his bosses he could handle him, help the guy grow on and off the field and make him a productive player. He was right.

2. Michael Oher, T, Baltimore
3. Mark Sanchez, QB, N.Y. Jets

Defensive rookie

Brian Cushing, LB, Houston. He doesn't lead the league in tackles, but he's mighty close. More important, he leads the Houston Texans, a team that features tackling machine DeMeco Ryans, who led the club in stops each of his first three pro seasons. Not anymore. Cushing has led or tied for the team lead in tackles six times this season and been named AFC Defensive Player of the Week twice already -- the first time in Texans history that's been done. I wasn't sure why he was the first USC linebacker to come off the board. Now I know.

2. Jairus Byrd, S, Buffalo
3. James Laurinaitis, LB, St. Louis

Coach of the Year

Sean Payton, New Orleans. The Saints were the feel-good story of 2006 when they made an unexpected run to the NFC Championship Game. But tell me what they've done since. Uh-huh, throw a lot of touchdown passes and go nowhere. Until now. Because now they're unbeaten and on top of the NFC. Part of that has to do with Brees, part with an improved defense and most with the head coach. Payton has the Saints on track for the playoffs, making all the right moves and right calls as New Orleans breezes through the schedule unbeaten.

2. Marvin Lewis, Cincinnati
3. (tie) Josh McDaniels, Denver; Jim Caldwell, Indianapolis

Assistant coach

Gregg Williams, New Orleans defensive coordinator. The knock on the Saints last year was that they couldn't play defense. So they changed their coordinator, changed players and changed their identity. Now they're an aggressive, attacking, ball-hawking unit, and New Orleans is a complete ballclub. Gregg Williams, take a bow. With his addition the personality of the defense changed. A year ago, it had 22 takeaways and hemorrhaged points. Now it leads the league in forcing turnovers, with two more than it had in 2008, including a league-high 16 interceptions.

2. Mike Nolan, defensive coordinator, Denver
3. Mike Zimmer, defensive coordinator, Cincinnati

Most surprising team

Cincinnati. The Bengals were the living embodiment of Hard Knocks, the HBO series that featured them last summer. They weren't just bad; they stunk, making the playoffs once in the past 18 years and none in the past three. "Now is the time for us to answer back," team president Mike Brown told players at camp, "and the place for us to answer back is on the playing field." Mission accomplished. They beat Green Bay. They beat Pittsburgh. They beat Baltimore. Twice, no less. Color Cincinnati a playoff team.

2. Denver
3. New Orleans

Most disappointing team

Tennessee. A year ago the Titans were 13-3, the best record in the AFC. Now they're 2-6, with Bud Adams serving as the team GM and Jeff Fisher as the latest runway model for Indianapolis Colts apparel. The season hit rock bottom when Tennessee was hammered by New England, with the Patriots putting up 45 first-half points. Only two opponents scored more than 21 a year ago. Something has gone terribly wrong.

2. New York Giants
3. Washington

Most surprising player

Cedric Benson, RB, Cincinnati. Discarded by the Chicago Bears before last season, he sat around the house until Cincinnati called. Now he's the second-leading running back in the league and one of the most compelling reasons the Bengals are a playoff threat. Benson has been nothing short of top-shelf with Cincinnati -- a hard worker and outstanding teammate who has made himself into the franchise back the Bears envisioned when they took him with the fourth pick of the 2005 draft.

2. Miles Austin, WR, Dallas
3. Vernon Davis, TE, San Francisco

Most disappointing player

Matt Forte, RB, Chicago. After Tennessee beat the Bears last season, players and coaches in the winning locker room said Forte was the guy they focused on because if you could stop him, you could stop the Bears. Not anymore. He doesn't do much of anything. His yards are down. His carries are down. His average is down. His touchdowns are down. When the Bears acquired Jay Cutler they changed their identity, and now they don't know who they are. One thing I do know is that Matt Forte is not a factor. Sad.

2. Terrell Owens, WR, Buffalo
3. LaDainian Tomlinson, RB, San Diego

Best free-agent pickup

Darren Sharper, S, New Orleans. All he's done is intercept a league-high seven passes and rejuvenate a defense in desperate need of a makeover. When people talk about the Saints they start with Drew Brees. But you hear Sharper's name soon after, largely because he has helped to turn the Saints defense into an offense. You think I'm kidding. I'm not. It has two more touchdowns (seven) than the Cleveland offense, with Sharper scoring on three of them. It also has a league-best 24 takeaways and the respect of its opponents.

2. Brett Favre, QB, Minnesota
3. Brian Dawkins, S, Denver

Best trend

The protection of quarterbacks. I don't know if it's the protection they're getting from new league rules or their offensive lines, but whatever it is it's keeping them on the field. Take a look around: There are no Tom Bradys this season. If quarterbacks are sidelined it's only for a start here or there. There are no broken bones, torn knee ligaments or season-ending surgeries, and don't ask me why. All I know is that something's working, and the NFL is better for it. Quarterback is the most important position in the game, and people pay to see the best and brightest, not their understudies.

2. Arizona winning on the road. The Cards are 4-0.
3. Cincinnati winning in its division. The Bengals are 4-0.

Worst trend

The disparity of the league. Nowhere was it more evident than three weeks ago when there were six games decided by 28 or more points. That hadn't happened in the NFL since the last week of the 1970 season. The league is a combination of the very, very rich and the very, very poor. There are way too many downtrodden clubs, more than I can ever remember. Pete Rozelle wanted parity in the NFL. It had it once. It has it no more.

2. Poor tackling
3. Twitter in the hands of NFL players

Best moment

Detroit's defeat of the Redskins. I suspected Washington wasn't content just to bail out General Motors. So it extended its generosity to Motown's football team, ending a string of 19 straight losses. The Lions celebrated by circling the field, slapping hands with fans who cheered the end of an era. Then they went on to lose their next five ballgames. No sweat. Bad habits die hard.

2. Brett Favre's last-second touchdown pass to beat San Francisco
3. Denver coach Josh McDaniels celebrating on the field following an emotional victory over his former team, the New England Patriots.

Worst moment

The death of Vikki Zimmer, wife of Cincinnati's Mike Zimmer. It happened three days before the Bengals played Baltimore, and it shook the Bengals' franchise. Players said she served as the team's den mother, there with food or encouragement when they needed it. When she died unexpectedly, the team and her husband were compelled to soldier on. Zimmer not only coached the Baltimore game, the Bengals won it. I don't know how either persevered.

2. Dante Wesley's hit on Clifton Smith, provoking a one-game suspension.
3. Any JaMarcus Russell pass.