Sam Bradford is NFL MVP, says Sports Illustrated’s Peter King
The NFL doesn't give out an MVP award after Week 4, but if it did, Sam Bradford would have the vote of at least one esteemed member of football's national punditry.
In the latest Monday Morning Quarterback column, Sports Illustrated's Peter King leads things off with the following headline:
Pity the Eagles fan who has just awoken from a month-long slumber (Rip Van Brocklin?).
Writes King:
"The MVP, I think, should never be determined on numbers alone — though they help. The MVP should be about the player who means the most to a very good team, and without whom that team would be Just Another Team. And the Vikings would be 2-2 or maybe 3-1 with Shaun Hill playing quarterback right now. Bradford has lifted the Vikings to a point where they believe that without their three leading men they can still win the Super Bowl. And there is tremendous value in that."
Not that Bradford's numbers would disqualify him. In three games, all wins, the 29-year-old quarterback has completed 69.5 percent of his passes while averaging 7.6 yards per attempt with four touchdowns and no interceptions.
Dating to the start of the 2013 season, Bradford has completed 64.2 percent of his passes, 6.9 yards per attempt, 255.5 yards per game, 37 TDs, and 18 INTs with a QB rating of 89.8.
For what it is worth, that QB rating ranks 14th among players who've started at least 20 games during that span, ahead of Jay Cutler, Cam Newton, Matthew Stafford, Andrew Luck, and Derek Carr, to name a few. Of course, Bradford has started far fewer games than any of those names, and QB rating is a tremendously flawed stat. Nevertheless, it's going to be a lot of fun to see how this season plays out in Minnesota.
The Vikings come to town in two weeks.
For more Bradford discussion, tune in to the latest episode of Not Another Philly Sports Talk show, with lots of Phillies and Sixers discussion as well.