Randy Moss Should be MVP?

[eS El Duque]

In the NFL, the debate surrounding the Most Valuable Player award is framed by a remarkably homogeneous community of dudes.

Within this community, men fall into two camps: those who wish they had Tom Brady's life, and those who wish they had Tony Romo's life. That's really the only obvious split. And everyone can agree that if they had to stay old and married, they'd like to be Brett Favre.

Thus it's not really surprising that the current NFL MVP discussion seems to focus on those three quarterbacks.

The coverage of Favre, in particular, has spun wildly out of control. It's not sports anymore, it's just thinly-veiled erotica. In fact, American sports reporters have really created an entirely new multimedia genre over the past four months: Favrotica. In case you haven't heard, he's still a gunslinger and a riverboat gambler and he's like a little kid out there. But now he's smart.

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It might not seem like such a bright idea to give a little kid a gun and put him in a boat, but whatever. Brett somehow makes it all work. He's that awesome.

Well, all the fawning over Brady, Romo and Favre has obscured the MVP credentials of Randy Moss, the player who's actually had the most dramatic impact on his team.

How dramatic? Last year, New England averaged 212.5 passing yards per game, 24.1 points per game, and they had a red zone TD rate of 60 percent. This season it's 298.6 passing yards, 37.4 points, and they score a touchdown on 69.2 percent of their red zone possessions.

If you think improved quarterback play is the primary reason the Pats offense has made the jump from "great" to "historically great," then you should probably give Tom Brady the MVP. But almost no one really thinks that.

Moss leads the NFL in receiving yardage (1,343) and receiving touchdowns (19), and he unofficially leads the league in beating triple-coverage for long scores. He's a generational talent, and we'd all somehow forgotten this fact during 2007 fantasy drafts – no fewer than 10 wide receivers were taken ahead of him.

That isn't likely to happen again in 2008.

Here are three more things you may have forgotten about the guy who should be the NFL's MVP, but won't be:

1) Moss was supposed to go to Green Bay.

"We could have gotten him for less money than New England did," Favre said back in May. "He wanted to play in Green Bay for the amount of money we could have paid him. It's well worth the risk."

How phenomenal would the Packers be if Favre were throwing to Greg Jennings, Donald Driver, and Randy Moss? They're 12-2 as it is. Green Bay's offensive statistics would look something like those New England has produced. SI's Sportsman of the Year issue would have been so Favrotic they'd have given it a centerfold and an opaque wrapper.

2) Not only was Moss reportedly injured during the preseason, there were actually rumors that the Patriots were going to cut him.

Don't believe it? Here's a link. To his credit, the writer was obviously not convinced that the rumors were valid. But they were definitely out there, and Moss sank a little further in fantasy drafts because of them. Moss' average draft position in Yahoo! leagues was 35.6, basically the middle of Round 4.

So far he's outscored the receiver with the highest ADP (Steve Smith) by 126 fantasy points.

3) Moss is not actually under contract with the Patriots in 2008, at least not yet.

If the best receiver in the NFL isn't in New England next year, then Brady isn't worth considering in the first round of fantasy drafts. If Moss does return, Brady will rarely fall beyond the third overall pick. Moss is really the only WR who will deserve serious first-round consideration in '08.

A few other fun facts about Randy Moss: it's been three years since he's fumbled; his best fantasy season was actually 2003, when he had 111 receptions, 1,632 yards and 17 TD; he's already fifth all-time on the career receiving TD list (120) and 15th in career receiving yardage (12,043).

[Shallow]

Take away Moss and Light and Brady wouldn't even have made the pro bowl this year. But he's a QB and everyone likes him, plus the numbers are there so he's going to get it. He's never gotten it before. He's been on 3 Superbowl teams. So they have to give it to him. Given the situation I think any number of QBs could have had similar numbers. You can give anyone from Roethlisberger to Warner to Schaub that much time in the pocket with a WR that can catch poorly thrown pop flies over two DBs and a slot guy that always gets wide open right infront of them and they'll have 40 something TDs too if their coach chose to run up the score on bad teams with pass plays only. You really don't have to be a great QB to play in the situation Brady has played in this year. How many times were te chips really down and Brady had to make a big play. The Pats have been behind a couple times yeah, but in Indy, Indy's D couldn't go 4 quarters. They gave away some big plays at the end. In Philly, Philly threw the ball away at the end. In Baltimore some very bad calls and coaching decisions saved the Pats. Every other game there was no chance of them losing or even needing a QB to win.


Randy Moss MVP. With a lot of help from bad DBs not knowing how to swat down flutter balls.

[thisoneguy360]

Randy Moss is a fuckin beast but I don't see him taking the MVP, that would be dope though

[Lunatic]

Moss deserves it. Brady will get it.

[OG Hack Wilson]

i say the MVP should go to jericho cotchery

but it'll probably go to cindy brady

[Lunatic]

i say the MVP should go to jericho cotchery

LOL

[Chamillitary Click]

its going to the guy that gets moss the ball...brady is def. the best qb in the nfl. and if your going to say that if moss wasnt on the team he would be wack, then peyton must be a TERRIBLE qb, with his two receivers.

[jeromechickenbone]

Excellent article.  Where did you get it from and who wrote it?

[Lunatic]

then peyton must be a TERRIBLE qb, with his two receivers.

i understand the point you're tryna make, but that's not necessarily true. Moss went to N.E already as an established WR, were-as Harrison, Wayne, Clark, and even that Gonzalez kid came to Indy as all rookies and have been molded into top targets.

[Chamillitary Click]

then peyton must be a TERRIBLE qb, with his two receivers.

i understand the point you're tryna make, but that's not necessarily true. Moss went to N.E already as an established WR, were-as Harrison, Wayne, Clark, and even that Gonzalez kid came to Indy as all rookies and have been molded into top targets.

i guess, but bradys won the super bowl wit branch, and givens. i mean stallworth and moss is def. a better combo (not to mention welker is an absolute monster). so sure randy is a factor in brady breakin records, and there 16-0 season, but brady has shown he can win a super bowl and play lik an mvp w/o randy.

[OG Hack Wilson]

i say the MVP should go to jericho cotchery

LOL

jericho's the best lol

[Chamillitary Click]

i say the MVP should go to jericho cotchery

LOL

jericho's the best lol

LMAO!

[WestCoasta]

I hate the Patriots but Tom Brady should get MVP hands down

[OG Hack Wilson]

I hate the Patriots but Tom Brady should get MVP hands down

  its all Randy Moss

[Shallow]

then peyton must be a TERRIBLE qb, with his two receivers.

i understand the point you're tryna make, but that's not necessarily true. Moss went to N.E already as an established WR, were-as Harrison, Wayne, Clark, and even that Gonzalez kid came to Indy as all rookies and have been molded into top targets.

i guess, but bradys won the super bowl wit branch, and givens. i mean stallworth and moss is def. a better combo (not to mention welker is an absolute monster). so sure randy is a factor in brady breakin records, and there 16-0 season, but brady has shown he can win a super bowl and play lik an mvp w/o randy.

QBs don't win Superbowls. Teams do. If Brady was on Buffalo all these years he'd have zero Superbowls. Zero playoff wins, and no one would care about him. Everything NE did the past few years could have been done with Bledsoe. No one wants to believe it but it's true. NE would have beaten St. Lous that year with Bledsoe just like they beat The Steelers when Bledsoe came in for Brady in the AFC Championship. Every year NE won they controlled the line on both sides and that is what won them the Superbowls. You control the line and don't make stupid mistakes and you win the game, every time.