| Authored by Jeff Risdon - 30th December, 2008 - 9:53 am
 Another season is in the books, and it's time to dole out hardware. But these aren't your typical straightforward awards. In the spirit of the message boarders here on RealGM and the Wednesday Night Drinking Club (you know who you are!), these are done Icness style.
What is that, you might ask?
Icness is this slightly warped, bombastic, know-it-all persona that lives inside Mr. Risdon. He's been around since 1990, making his debut at an Ohio University hockey game. He comes out less frequently these days, perhaps because I have two kids now and the last bottle of tequila I bought has lasted over 4 years. It's currently 7:14 AM on a Monday morning, my in-laws are at my house, and my son Layne is begging for a 6th game in the last hour of Chutes and Ladders, so Icness isn't fueled up quite yet. But his spirit carries on!
Most Unheralded MVP Candidate: Philip Rivers, who never stopped playing great despite a serious regression by both his OL and his star RB and got a 4-8 team to the playoffs. He probably won't even finish in the top 10, but he deserves loads of credit.
Best Story of the Year: The amazing success of the rookie coaches. Jon Harbaugh in Baltimore, Tony Sparano in Miami, and Mike Smith in Atlanta improved their teams a combined 23 games over 2007. All three made the playoffs with 11-5 records; if you had bet $10 on each team making the playoffs back in August, you'd have won $840,000. Jim Zorn in Washington held it together enough to finish 8-8 despite playing in a brutally tough division with appreciably less talent than his division foes. Here's to hoping all their successes breed a new trend of giving more shots at head coaching jobs to rookies.
Best Coaching Job: As good as all the rookies were, this award goes lock, stock, and three smoking barrels to Tom Coughlin of the Giants. Despite winning the last Super Bowl, most pundits gave the G-Men little chance of even making the playoffs again, let alone sealing up the #1 seed. They accomplished that despite losing two All Pro defensive ends and the antics of Plaxico Burress. Everyone who has done it says it's harder to stay on top than get to the top, and Coughlin deserves credit for keeping his team on top. Bill Belichick would have won this award, but you have to make the playoffs to earn this one.
Most Fortuitous Injury: Vince Young in Tennessee, which opened the door for the more stable, reliable Kerry Collins to take over. I predicted the Titans to finish 6-10 with Young, who has shown zero progress from his first day in Nashville. That was obviously overly pessimistic, but had I known Collins would be the QB I would have predicted an 8-8 finish. Young's early injury opened the door for Jeff Fisher to make the necessary change, and the Titans didn't look back in wrapping up the #1 seed in the AFC.
Best In-Season Rebound: Patriots' rookie LB Jerod Mayo. In the first meeting with the Dolphins, Mayo was the primary victim of the "Wildcat" formation, continually blowing containment assignments and generally looking bewildered and stupid. He played one of the 5 worst LB performances I've ever seen, exacerbated by the fact he's one of the few guys who had faced that offense before (Tim Tebow at Florida), and both Brian Billick and Tom Jackson backed up my opinion on national TV. Jump forward about 3 weeks, and Mayo was a completely different player, a confident tackling machine who was seemingly always in the right place at the right time. Nice recovery, Mr. Mayo!
Most Overlooked Streak: The team with the last unsigned first round draft pick has still never made the playoffs since the increase to 30 teams (when JAX and CAR entered the league). This year's victim was the Jaguars and draftee Derrick Harvey, following the Browns and Brady Quinn in 2007. I know a few teams really feel out potential draft picks in interviews regarding signability, and I would expect that number to increase as this unfortunate trend gets more exposure.
Most Unfortunate Scapegoat for a Crappy Season: James "Shack" Harris, the deposed GM in Jacksonville. Granted he is the guy responsible for the above snafu and the terrible signing of Jerry Porter, but Harris had assembled a strong base roster over the last few years. As I predicted, they peaked in 2007 and the expectations were too high for 2008, but that blame should have fallen squarely on Coach Jack Del Rio. But because the Jaguars gave Del Rio a lucrative extension, he gets to stay and the guy who gave him all the pieces to the puzzle Del Rio couldn't put together takes the fall.
Best In-Season Example of Perseverance: Vikings' QB Tarvaris Jackson got the hook after dreadful play during the team's 0-2 start. Veteran Gus Frerotte took over and led the team to a 7-5 record before getting hurt in the Lions' game at the start of December. The Viking nation saw doom and gloom, but Jackson shined. In leading the Vikings to three wins in four games and seizing the NFC North title, Jackson dramatically outplayed expectations and rallied the team around him. It would have been real easy for Jackson to sulk or mail it in after his deserved benching, but to his credit the youngster busted his butt to improve his game and ultimately save both the Vikings' season and his own career.
Best Color Commentary: Boomer Esiason on Westwood One's radio coverage. I don't recall which game it was, but he pointed out Brett Favre's growing frustration with the slowness at which he was receiving the play calls from the sideline. Two plays later, Favre ignores the play sent in and calls his own play, on which he throws an INT because Laveraneus Coles, the WR closest to his own sideline, ran the play called from the sideline. Boomer also quickly picked up on how the Redskins' defense was tipping off their blitzes and how Pittsburgh was exploiting it during their MNF tilt. It's why I try to listen to radio broadcasts in lieu of the banalities of John Madden and Tony Siragusa as much as possible.
Worst Luck: The Denver Broncos placed seven running backs on injured reserve during the season. That means the average lifespan of a Denver RB was under two games. You anticipate some sort of attrition during the season at that position, but losing seven players at the same spot?!? That's not just bad luck, that's a Ziggy cartoon.
Best Example of Why You Don't Deal with the Devil: Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones danced with the devil, and his dalliance destroyed Dallas. Adding Pacman Jones is symbolic of an owner more interested in personal promotion than assembling a good football team. The Cowboys don't need an overhaul; they need an exorcism of their owner.
Second-Best Example: The Jets throwing out Chad Pennington like a month-old banana peel in favor of the sexier Brett Favre. The warning signs around Favre (age, turnovers, dedication, coachability) were visible from space with the naked eye. They spent like drunken sailors on leave in Phuket trying to win in 2008. Now they are stuck with an old, extraordinarily overpaid team with no coach, a washed-up QB, and the ignominy of having Pennington come into their stadium and vanquishing their playoff aspirations. Here's betting that the Jets would have won at least 12 games with the reliable, hyper-accurate Pennington.
Most Overlooked Catastrophic Injury: Few people paid mind to it, but when the Browns lost WR Joe Jurevicius to injury last summer, their season was essentially over. Jurevicius was the safety valve, the chain-mover, downfield blocker and locker-room leader who allowed Braylon Edwards to thrive under less pressure and Derek Anderson to have great confidence in his wideouts. Once that was gone, the Browns offense was doomed despite an outstanding OL and decent skill position talent.
Best Predictions By Me: I'm perhaps the only writer in America who correctly pegged the Cowboys as a 9-7 team missing the playoffs. I also nailed the rise of the Panthers, Vikings, Eagles and Bills and forecast the decline of the Jaguars, Bengals, and Packers.
Worst Predictions By Me: I had Seattle winning 12 games, not losing 12. I also wildly missed on the Titans (I forecasted 6-10), Browns (I picked 9-7), and Bears (5-11). Technically, I picked the Lions to win six games, but I swear I only expected three or four. I was way off the mark on Miami and Atlanta, but so was everyone else so I don't feel too bad on those.
Most Valuable Player on a Crappy Team: Shaun Rogers was dominant in his move to nose tackle in Cleveland. If he played for a playoff team he'd be the unquestioned Defensive Player of the Year. My lasting mental picture: Rogers being triple-teamed by the G-C-G in the Colts game, pushing all three blockers backwards and forcing Peyton Manning to hurry a throw that got picked off.
Most Overrated Player: The quick-twitch answer is Tony Romo, but that's not the correct answer. That indignity falls on Bears DT Brian Urlacher, whose apparent spat about not making the Pro Bowl shows just how deluded both he and most Bears fans are about his ability. In coverage he's still one of the better inside LBs in the league, and when unencumbered by blockers Urlacher can still get to the sideline on stretch plays and screens as well as anyone. But #54 has lost all concept of gap integrity and has lost the little ability he ever had to disengage from blockers. Urlacher is a barely adequate starter masquerading as Mr. Awesome.
Most Entertaining Game: Hard to top the Week 17 tilt between the Panthers and Saints, but the Tampa Bay/Chicago overtime battle in Week 3 was amazing. Watching the furious comeback by the Bucs, making desperation play after desperation play, and taking in the reaction of the Bears vociferous crowd made for some great football. It's a shame that one didn't end in a tie.
Biggest "What the Hell?" Game: Week 7, St. Louis 34, Dallas 14. The Rams would not win another game all season, and at that time the Cowboys were still flying high. Even without an injured Tony Romo, the Cowboys were 9.5 point favorites on the road against a Rams team that had yet to score more than one offensive touchdown in a game. Honorable mention to the Raiders blowout upset in Denver and the Browns early Monday Night Football domination of the Giants.
Most Heart-Warming Moment: Buccaneerss kicker Matt Bryant nailed three field goals, the margin of victory, in a Week 4 win over the Packers. He did this four days after his infant son tragically passed away. I can't comprehend how hard it must be to suffer through that, and Bryant showed amazing heart and professionalism in even trying to play. I've never seen a team rally around a kicker like that before, and Bryant's strength in the face of tremendous grief is a powerful message.
And now, the more traditional awards...
Most Valuable Player: Peyton Manning, because he actually showed signs of slippage early this season and the Colts were terrible. Once Peyton got right, the Colts have gone undefeated. That is not a coincidence.
Defensive Player of the Year: James Harrison, Pittsburgh, edges out Albert Haynesworth of Tennessee and Baltimore's Ed Reed.
Offensive Rookie: Matt Ryan, QB, Atlanta, although had the Bears made the playoffs Matt Forte certainly merited strong consideration.
Defensive Rookie: Jerod Mayo, LB, New England, even though over the last six weeks no rookie defender played better than Detroit DE Cliff Avril, one of the few Lions with a very bright future.
Just in general, this year's rookie class has been one of the most impressive instant-impact classes in history. The All-Rookie team this year favorably compares to any other All-Rookie class you can name, coaches included. This might very well go down as the Year of the Best Draft Class.
Executive of the Year: Bill Parcells in Miami. Frequent readers know my disdain for The Tuna, but the turnaround he engineered is nothing short of miraculous. I am pleasantly surprised at how much rope he gave to his rookie head coach and how well he blended in useful spare parts that other teams saw as worthless. Getting Anthony Fasano and Akin Ayodele from Dallas for a fourth round pick is highly emblematic of why Miami is the AFC East champ a year after going 1-15 and Dallas is watching the playoffs at home.
Most Improved Player: DeAngelo Williams was perilously close to being a bust early into his third season in Carolina. Then the light switched on, he learned how to read blocks and rushed to a freakish 6.5 yards per carry and 15 touchdowns over his last eight games. One of his linemen, C Ryan Kalil, belongs in the Top 5 in this category, as well.
Best Off-season Acquisition: Michael Turner in Atlanta, edging out Jared Allen in Minnesota.
And Three fearless predictions for the offseason:
-Brian Billick gets a head coaching job somewhere, and his team improves by at least four games next season.
-There won't be any trades in the top 10 picks in the upcoming draft, but at least 10 trades go down between picks 15 and 40, which is where the value lies in this draft class.
-At least one franchise will be sold, and preparations for relocation will begin.
--Jeff.Risdon@RealGM.com |
