Week 17 NFL Takeaways: It’s time to start thinking MVP and there are three players who have separated themselves from the pack, and one is a surprise

Cooper Kupp and Jonathan Taylor have been workhorses for their respective teams. Kupp has 138 receptions for the Los Angeles Rams and 15 touchdowns. Jonathan Taylor has touched the ball 354 times for the Indianapolis Colts while scoring 20 touchdowns. As great as these two players have been, and their offenses would have struggled greatly without them this season, Samuel is arguably the most versatile and dynamic non-quarterback offensive player in the NFL.

Kupp averages 13.3 yards per reception and Taylor averages 5.5 per carry and 9.2 yards per reception. Samuel averages 17.9 yards per reception with 1,310 yards on the season on only 73 catches, plus 6.3 yards per carry on 51 rushing attempts. He has six receiving touchdowns and seven rushing touchdowns — as a wide receiver he has the most rushing touchdowns on his team. When the San Francisco 49ers give Samuel the ball, a big play usually ensues.

As much as Kupp and Taylor have helped their quarterbacks, at least they’re working with players who have been to a Pro Bowl, were top-two overall draft picks, and have thrown for 4,000-plus yards. Samuel’s quarterback for nearly all of this season has been Jimmy Garoppolo, who the 49ers have so much confidence in that in the 2021 NFL Draft they selected a quarterback, Trey Lance, with the third-overall pick. Sunday it was Lance under center.

There is no way that the 49ers improve from the ugly start they had to this season with all of their injuries, to a team that has won six of its last eight games without Samuel’s dominance. He didn’t have one of his best performances in the run game in Week 17 against the Houston Texans, but his 45-yard touchdown catch in the fourth quarter put the game out of reach.

He is the most unique offensive weapon in the NFL and that deserves some MVP consideration.

We all know that quarterback stats are a bit inflated these days. A 3,500 yard season with 30 touchdown passes doesn’t mean what it would have meant in 1995, or even 2005. However, through 16 games this season, Brady is 10 yards shy of 5,000 yards passing and has thrown the ball 682 times this season, 45 most attempts than his previous high, and he still has one more game to play if Bruce Arians decides to play him in Week 18 with the Buccaneers having clinched the NFC South and no chance at the No. 1 overall seed.

I’m ignoring that he’s 44 in this MVP discussion. As impressive as it is that he is closer to 50 than 30 and attempting the most passes of his career, that’s not why he’s the MVP. That final drive against the Jets yesterday is a snapshot of why he should be considered for MVP.

As much skill-position talent as the Buccaneers have, it hasn’t all been on the field at the same time for Brady this entire season. The Buccaneers’ pass catcher who Brady is most comfortable with, Rob Gronkowski, has missed five games this season. Antonio Brown, who is “no longer a Buc,” has missed nine, and Chris Godwin, the Buccaneers’ leading receiver, will not play the rest of this season after suffering an ACL injury last week.

The Buccaneers were down 14 points to the then 4-11 Jets in the third quarter when Brown melted down and left the field, and they would go on to score 18 unanswered points, including that final drive in which Brady decided that Grayson would spare them the embarrassment of losing to the Jets.

It’s not like Brady has been working with the skill-position talent in Tampa Bay that he had in his last season in New England, but he’s had to deal with not throwing the ball to the same people week in and week out. Even with those difficulties, Brady and the Buccaneers still won the one thing that they didn’t win last season, a division championship.

I know at Deadspin we have taken Aaron Rodgers to task, and rightfully so might I add. His stance on COVID-19 as a public figure is dangerous, and his opinions on “wokeness” and “cancel culture” are laughable.

However, he has been the most valuable player in the NFL this season. The Green Bay Packers have lost offensive linemen, a tight end, wide receivers, and an outstanding pass rusher to injury. They even had to endure a game without stud running back Aaron Jones. This is all atop an acrimonious offseason in which it wasn’t certain Rodgers would play for the Packers in 2021.

Last night, the Packers clinched the No. 1 overall seed in the NFC for the second consecutive season with their Sunday Night Football victory against their division rival Minnesota Vikings.

The Vikings have been dealing with health issues as well, yet were able to hold the Packers at bay through the halfway point of the second quarter. Rodgers then led the Green Bay down the field for two touchdowns to take a 20-0 lead before the Vikings ended the quarter with a field goal. The Packers won 37-10 with Rodgers completing 76 percent of his passes for 288 yards and two touchdowns.

This season is not Rodgers’ best. He’s had many with more than 4,000 yards passing and 40-plus touchdowns, single-digit interceptions, and averaged more than eight yards per attempt. In 2021, he has only four interceptions, but also only 3,977 passing yards, and 35 touchdowns at 7.8 yards per attempt through 16 games.

It’s about more than simply stats for Rodgers this season. Even though all of the controversy surrounding him was of his own creation in 2021, he navigated that along with all of the Packers’ injuries to lead them back to the top of the conference. That’s value, and as far as NFL players go, I guess that makes him the most valuable.