Every postseason we go through every team/division, head-to-head/tournament style, casting our vote for the team’s and each division’s Offensive Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Coach of the Year…sending the divisional winners to a conference battle to get down to the final two (AFC and NFC) for the ‘Super Bowl’ of each award.
Our voting process and methodology and reasoning is usually quite different than the NFL’s and typically at least half If not all) our winners are not the NFL’s voted winners.
Come along for the division-by-division ride, and then to the conference finals, and then to the ultimate final to find out who our 2021 winners are…a new piece posted each day of early February, and the finals happen right before the NFL has their awards night.
OK, here we go…
--NFC EAST—
Offensive Player of the Year
DAL = Tyron Smith, DAL
PHI = Jalen Hurts, PHI
WSH = Antonio Gibson, WSH
NYG = Saquon Barkley, NYG
Four very unique/odd situations for the award nod here…
When Tyron Smith was out, the Dallas offense struggled. When he was hindered, they were at-risk. He’s so key to their offense.
Jalen Hurts got a Philly team to the playoffs somehow…throwing for just 16 TDs but running for 10 scores. He was their offense.
Antonio Gibson was carrying the offense late in the season, despite several injuries he was playing through.
Saquon Barkley’s numbers sucked, but when he walked onto the field…11 guys were trained on him on defense.
The Giants played better with Barkley out and Booker in, so I discount him. Gibson had issues early in the season (playing hurt) but also a major fumbling issue in 2021 as well, so I discount him. Tyron is good, but Dallas still got to the division title even with him out playing and some playing not at 100%. Dallas was hurt by Tyron’s injuries, but not as badly hurt by them as in years past. Jalen Hurts literally carried the Eagles offense, like it or not.
WINNER = Jalen Hurts moves on to the NFC finals.
Rookie of the Year
DAL = LB Micah Parsons, DAL
PHI = WR DeVonta Smith, PHI
WSH = CB Benjamin St. Juste, WSH
NYG = OLB Azeez Ojulari, NYG
Do I even need to write commentary here? Micah Parsons in a landslide, no one else on this list is even worth considering.
And I hope you were able to bet on Parsons as Defensive Player of the Year with us in the preseason. Will he be my DPOY choice over all in the end? I don’t know. I have a different take on football things. We’ll see…
WINNER = Micah Parsons moves on to the NFC finals.
Defensive Player of the Year
DAL = LB Micah Parsons, DAL
PHI = CB Darius Slay, PHI
WSH = LB Cole Holcomb, WSH
NYG = CB James Bradberry, NYG
Can it be two-for-two for Micah Parsons? ROY and DPOY? Darius Slay had a real nice year. Cole Holcomb also played well. It was a down year for Bradberry…but I could hardly find anyone to nominate for NYG, so I gave the nod to Bradberry among a bag of ‘meh’.
Yes, it's Parsons here too (DPOY and ROY)...over Trevon Diggs. Parsons thrived as an interior linebacker and then pushed into playing edge rusher for a spell, and was great, then back to linebacker. He was excellent in 2021 season.
WINNER = Micah Parsons moves on to the NFC finals.
Coach of the Year
DAL = O-C Kellen Moore, DAL
PHI = D-C Jonathan Gannon, PHI
WSH = HC Ron Rivera, WSH
NYG = HC Joe Judge, NYG
Yeesh…
Not a lot to choose from here. Dallas did finish #1 in scoring and total yards, so that has to account for something…even though an easy schedule helped. But the other nominees aren’t anything special from 2021. So, by default…I’ll go with the boy wonder for Dallas’s sweet number output/ranked #1 in scoring offense.
WINNER = Kellen Moore moves on to the NFC finals.
