NFL 2019: Midseason Awards

Offensive Player of the Year – Christian McCaffrey

Christian McCaffrey

I mentioned a couple of other guys who have put up historic feats individually, but this is just a very close race between two superstar running backs to me. Michael Thomas’ 73 receptions so far put him on pace to break Marvin Harrison’s all-time reception record for a season with 143. He is also almost 100 yards of the next-closest receiver in terms of yards through the air and despite the heavy volume about 62 percent of his catches have gone for first downs.

All that despite only playing with Drew Brees for about two-and-a-half games. The quarterback I included in this conversation is Lamar Jackson, who could easily be mentioned as an MVP candidate as well. Lamar is on pace to be the first player ever to pass for over 3000 yards and rush for another 1000 – and he should easily surpass those numbers. While he is averaging 11.9 yards per rush and has looked borderline unstoppable when taking off, his ability to use different angles and provide big plays as a passer has been even more impressive. He has combined for 14 touchdowns and at least three of his five interceptions can’t be put on him whatsoever.

However, like I said – this has been a neck-on-neck race between Dalvin Cook and Christian McCaffrey. Cook leads the league in rushing and has been the engine for the Minnesota Vikings offense. He is averaging 5.3 yards per carry and 10.1 a catch, while scoring nine total touchdowns. Outside of that Chicago game when he was wrapped up in the backfield routinely, he has gone off in every game, with 140+ yards from scrimmage in week of the eight weeks. With that being said, I chose McCaffrey simply because Cook has more weapons around him and the Panthers had won every game with their backup QB until this weekend.

Run CMC has already surpassed 1000 total yards in only seven games. He averages 154 yards from scrimmage with 5.2 yards a carry and 39 catches on the season. He has reached the endzone ten times while logging five rushes of 20+ yards and three of 40+ yards. Until yet he hasn’t put the ball on the ground despite the heavy workload and he will probably add another passing touchdown at some point.

The next three: Dalvin Cook, Michael Thomas and Lamar Jackson