2018 NFL midseason awards

[Msmith]

Interesting take in comparing Brees and Mahomes;

"Let's work through these two together, since they stand apart for me. The most obvious difference is the touchdown total. Mahomes has 29 touchdown passes. Twenty-nine! Brees has 18. Andrew Luck has 23, and nobody else in the league tops 20. The second-year sensation Mahomes is throwing for touchdowns on 9.1 percent of his passes, the second-highest mark in the league behind Ryan Fitzpatrick. The only passer to hit 9 percent in a 500-attempt season is Aaron Rodgers in 2011. Tom Brady didn't do it in 2007. Dan Marino didn't do it in 1984. This is a big advantage for Mahomes.

And then, when you start working through the rest of the categories, Brees picks up advantages, some significant. The veteran has thrown one interception on 279 pass attempts. Mahomes has thrown seven in 317 tries, although his pick on Sunday was essentially a Hail Mary after poor Chiefs clock management. Mahomes is completing 66.2 percent of his passes. Brees is completing 76.3 percent of his throws. Just as Mahomes is challenging the touchdown record, Brees is threatening to take the completion percentage record and jump it from 72.1 percent by more than 4 percentage points. Completions can be overrated, but 40.9 percent of Brees' completions go for first downs, which is well above the league average of 36.3 percent.

Mahomes is averaging nearly a full yard more per pass than Brees, but a lot of that comes from his receivers' work on screens. Strip them out and Brees is completing 74.9 percent of his passes and averaging 8.7 yards per attempt. Mahomes is completing 61.9 percent of his non-screen passes while averaging ... 8.7 yards per attempt. Both marks are great. You don't need me to tell you Brees' is better.

Of course, while both teams have excellent weapons, there's a reason I ranked the Chiefs' weapons as the scariest in football before the season. Brees' top two receivers are Michael Thomas and Alvin Kamara. Pretty terrifying. Mahomes gets to work with Tyreek Hill and Kareem Hunt. Also scary. After that, though, Mahomes' next two guys up are Travis Kelce and Sammy Watkins. Brees is working with Benjamin Watson and either Ted Ginn Jr. or rookie Tre'Quan Smith, depending on when you're judging the arsenals. Brees has Mark Ingram to help in pass protection and a better offensive line given the injuries on the interior for the Chiefs, but Mahomes has more with which to work.

I'm not exactly the QB wins type, but the Saints are 7-1 and the Chiefs are 8-1. The Saints' lone loss came in a game against the Bucs in which Brees put up 40 points and his defense allowed 48 points. The Chiefs' lone loss came in a game in which Mahomes scored 40 points and his defense allowed 43 points to the Patriots. The only thing I might mention is that Mahomes left a couple of would-be touchdowns on the table with bad throws in the first half. It would be foolish to say Mahomes played badly, but it also would be naive to pretend he couldn't have played better given the opportunities at hand.

The case for Mahomes outside of the touchdowns isn't as obvious, at least to me. He has thrown 38 more passes than Brees, the product of not yet having his bye week. Mahomes offers far more with his legs than Brees, as the Texas Tech product has 144 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 25 carries once you remove those pesky kneel-downs from his totals. Brees, ceding touches in the running game to Taysom Hill, has turned nine carries into 34 yards, although he also has two scores on sneaks, which mitigates some of the gap between the two.

At the end of the day, there just isn't much between these two. Brees has a passer rating of 120.6 and a Total QBR of 84.5. Mahomes has a passer rating of 116.7 and a Total QBR of 85.4. They're 1-2 in each category. Maybe I lean toward Brees because the sentimental, sappy side of me wants to see the 39-year-old Brees finally win league MVP before he retires. If you prefer Mahomes, I can't fault you. If Mahomes gets to 56 passing touchdowns and breaks the league record in his first full year as a starter, I'll join you on that side of the fence. For now, though, very narrowly, I lean toward Brees."

Link:http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/2...-rookies-plays

[Halfcan]

You can manipulate all the numbers you want but Mahomes has 11 more TD passes (the only thing that counts) over Bress.

It is not even close. Mahomes is the MVP. He is breaking records every week- including many by Brees.

[ChiefBlueCFC]

Honestly, I really don't give a crap if Mahomes is MVP or Reid wins Coach of the Year. Don't care in the slightest. Let's just win in January and beginning of February

[highBOLTage]

Originally Posted by DRM08

So Brees is completing 13% more on non-screen throws but the average per attempt is equal. Doesn’t that mean Mahomes is going downfield more often? More yards per completion. Also harder to complete them.

Nope. Yards isn't equal. Yards per attempt is.

[RunKC]

Originally Posted by ChiefBlueCFC

Honestly, I really don't give a crap if Mahomes is MVP or Reid wins Coach of the Year. Don't care in the slightest. Let's just win in January and beginning of February

This.

Don’t give a shit about MVP. How about SUPER BOWL MVP!

[Flying High D]

I would be interested in Eric Berry’s opinion on this.

[CapsLockKey]

Brees isn't even the MVP of his own team. That offense relies on Kamara.

[MIAdragon]

Originally Posted by Flying High D

I would be interested in Eric Berry’s opinion on this.

Day to day

[staylor26]

Wack, but Mahomes will have plenty more opportunities. This would just be motivation to go get the SB MVP this year.

[DRM08]

Originally Posted by highBOLTage

Nope. Yards isn't equal. Yards per attempt is.

I didn’t say total yards. I said yards per completion. And none of the stats are an “equal” comparison when one guy is playing 6/8 games in domes while the other is 9/9 outdoors. Brees’ stats in the 2 outdoor games are very pedestrian including less than 7 yards per attempt.

[Dartgod]

Originally Posted by RunKC

This.

Don’t give a shit about MVP. How about SUPER BOWL MVP!

This is where I am at. Brees can have League MVP as long as we get to hoist the Lamar Hunt and Lombardi trophies.

[TomBarndtsTwin]

Originally Posted by RunKC

This.

Don’t give a shit about MVP. How about SUPER BOWL MVP!

This.

Brees can have the MVP.

I can settle with Mahomes getting the Super Bowl MVP.

[ptlyon]

I really don't think Mahomes gives one shit or another if he wins MVP or not

[Kiimo]

Let people talk about Brees all he wants, when voters get ready to cast their vote they are going to see the touchdown numbers and if they are plus 50 zero chance they pick Brees. They are going to fear looking like an idiot.

[ToxSocks]

Brees will win MVP because too many people love him so goddamn much. They'll look for reasons not to vote Mahomes like, "Yeah but look at all his weapons".

[Halfcan]

Originally Posted by Detoxing

Brees will win MVP because too many people love him so goddamn much. They'll look for reasons not to vote Mahomes like, "Yeah but look at all his weapons".

Yep, they love him so much they never gave him the award despite multiple 5000-yard seasons. The most of Any QB.

Mahomes will be breaking Lenny Dawson's record with 6 games left in the season. A record that has stood my entire life....with 6 games left.

He will also break the NFL record this week for 9 straight 300 yard games- no QB has ever done that in the history of the NFL.

31 total TD's with 7 games left to play. Amazing!