If anything, Week 17 served to confirm what we already knew: Tom Brady might be among the NFL's slowest and oldest players, but he remains its best. He cemented his latest MVP award -- according to the CBSSports.com NFL staff -- despite a pedestrian effort in a nearly meaningless Week 17 game against a Jets team with nothing to play for.

Over the course of his 18th season, Brady was the league's top passer in terms of total value and value per play, according to Football Outsiders' metrics, and he was also the leader in passing yards (4,577), third in touchdowns (32) and third in passer rating (102.8). And now he's poised to add MVP award No. 3 to a trophy case that includes five Lombardi Trophies and four Super Bowl MVP awards to go with his 13 Pro Bowl selections.

Rams running back Todd Gurley finished second in our voting, but the reality is that he never really had a chance -- through absolutely no fault of his own. He finished the 2017 season with 1,305 rushing yards (4.7 yards per carry) and 13 touchdowns in addition to 788 receiving yards and six more scores. In any other, Brady-less year, Gurley is your MVP, no questions asked. 

But here we are. 

Not surprisingly, Brady and Gurley received the first- and second-place votes on every one of our writers' ballots this week. It was in spots three through five where things diverged. Rob Gronkowski appeared on three ballots, as did Aaron Donald. Drew Brees, Le'Veon Bell and Calais Campbell got two votes each, while Antonio Brown, Alvin Kamara and Jimmy Garoppolo (YES, REALLY) each secured a fifth-place vote. 

Alright, without further ado, let's get to it:

2017 MVP final vote tally

1. Tom Brady -- 25 points
2. Todd Gurley -- 20 points
3. Aaron Donald -- 7 points
T-4. Le'Veon Bell -- 5 points
T-4. Drew Brees -- 5 points
T-6. Rob Gronkowski -- 4 points
T-6. Carson Wentz -- 4 points
7. Alvin Kamara -- 3 points
T-8. Calais Campbell -- 1 point
T-8. Antonio Brown -- 1 point

John Breech's top five

1. Tom Brady
2. Todd Gurley
3. Carson Wentz 
4. Le'Veon Bell 
5. Drew Brees

It's almost like we're starting to take Tom Brady for granted, but I'm not going to do that because he's 40 years old and he might not be around much longer. Not only did Brady lead the league in passing yards, but he did that even though he lost his favorite weapon (Julian Edelman) before the season started. Although I loved what Gurley did this season, there were several running backs -- like Le'Veon Bell -- who were just as productive and Gurley did lead all running backs in fumbles. There's no way the QB with the most interceptions would ever win MVP, so it's hard to overlook Gurley's fumbling. As for Carson Wentz, after watching the Eagles for the past three weeks, I thought it was only fair to include him here. Despite the fact that he missed the final three games, Wentz still did enough in 14 weeks to finish second in the NFL in touchdown passes (33) and fourth in QB rating (behind Brees, Brady and Alex Smith). 

Will Brinson's top five

1. Tom Brady
2. Todd Gurley
3. Le'Veon Bell 
4. Rob Gronkowski 
5. Drew Brees 

My only votes -- nothing changed from last week. As good as Gurley has been, Brady was great all season long, at the age of 40, playing without some of his top weapons and with a questionable defense.

Jared Dubin's top five

1. Tom Brady
2. Todd Gurley
3. Alvin Kamara
4. Aaron Donald
5. Calais Campbell

Good lord, can you believe Tom Brady this season? The man is 40 years old! He's going to win the MVP, and it's going to be richly deserved. There honestly are not good enough words in the English language to describe how ridiculous what he's doing at his age is, so I'm not even going to try. 

Let's talk about the running backs instead: Gurley was spectacular all season, but especially down the stretch as the Rams clinched the NFC West. He ended the season with 2,093 yards from scrimmage and 19 total touchdowns, which is just an absurdly good season. 2,000-plus yards combined with 15-plus touchdowns had only been done 30 times in the history of football before. Kamara, meanwhile, became the 29th rookie with 1,500 total yards or more. And he did it on only 201 total touches. Kamara led the NFL in yards per carry and was also the Saints' second-leading receiver. He was amazing and the single biggest difference-maker on their offense. 

Donald was the NFL's best defensive player this season. He is a destructive force on the inside, an absolute game-plan wrecker that cannot be stopped. The Rams won the NFC West with massive leaps forward on both sides of the ball, but the defense was the more consistent unit and Donald was the key to that. Campbell was the best player on the NFL's best defense, and for much of the season he was right there with Donald in terms of impact from a defensive lineman. He lined up everywhere and was a force of nature. Totally worth the Jaguars' money.

Sean Wagner-McGough's top five

1. Tom Brady
2. Todd Gurley
3. Drew Brees 
4. Aaron Donald
5. Carson Wentz 

Todd Gurley needed to play in Week 17 and piece together another dominant outing to have any shot at dethroning Tom Brady atop my ballot. Gurley did not play, as Rams coach Sean McVay opted to rest his starters before the playoffs. Brady, on the other hand, did play in the Patriots' Week 17 win over the Jets, and he did just enough, throwing two touchdowns and no picks. And so, that wraps up the MVP race. Brady, at age 40, was the league's best quarterback on the Super Bowl favorite. It's a no-brainer. In the end, this wasn't a particularly close race. 

Ignore spots 3-5. None of them had a chance and once again, it was difficult to come up with three more names behind Brady and Gurley.

Ryan Wilson's top five

  1. Tom Brady  
  2. Todd Gurley
  3. Aaron Donald
  4. Rob Gronkowski
  5. Antonio Brown

As we made clear above, Brady is your 2017 NFL MVP. That has been the case for weeks now. We also repeat what we've said previously: There's no way a defensive tackle wins this award, even if he deserves legitimate consideration. And the Rams' Aaron Donald certainly qualifies.  And while Brady is definitely New England's most valuable player, you can make a convincing case that Gronkowski is No. 2 on that list. He can beat single coverage in his sleep, and he's quite capable of beating double teams too. Antonio Brown missed the final two weeks of the regular season with a calf injury but he was a serious contender in the MVP chase until Week 15. Through 13 1/2 games, Brown hauled in 101 passes for 1,533 yards and nine touchdowns. He averaged 15.2 yards per catch, his best mark since 2011. On the mend for the next couple of weeks, Brown is now aiming for postseason MVP honors.