Sports Illustrated‘s Peter King writes that Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam Bradford is having an MVP season so far, leading the Purple to a 4-0 start with wins over the Carolina Panthers, Green Bay Packers and New York Giants.
“Normally I wouldn’t want to name a player who missed a quarter of his team’s games the MVP. But I will make an exception for Sam Bradford,” he writes.
“In those three games, learning a new offense on the fly, Bradford has beaten quarterbacks who have played in four of the past nine Super Bowls, and in each game outplayed Aaron Rodgers, Cam Newton and Eli Manning.”
So why Bradford, instead of, say, a member of the defense or breakout receiver Stefon Diggs.
“The words ‘valuable’ has always meant something to me with this award. Minnesota lost its three most important offensive players to injury in a two-week span in the summer: Bridgewater, Adrian Peterson and left tackle Matt Kalil,” he writes.
“The season, justifiably, could have spiraled to hell. But an unwavering coach, Mike Zimmer, and an emerging star defense have held the fort. And a quarterback the Rams gave away in 2015 and the Eagles gave away in 2016 has played the best three-game stretch of his pro career.”
For the record, King chose Bradford over Aaron Donald of the Los Angeles Rams and Trevor Siemian of the Denver Broncos.
You can read all of King’s argument over at TheMMQB.SI.com.
[Sports Illustrated]
