One could say Ezekiel Elliott should be the National Football League’s most valuable player simply for going by the first name “Ezekiel” and pulling it off so comfortably. But this is serious business to many of you, so we shall leave that alone.
Instead, I shall go by the more important criterion: He was the most important player on one of the very best teams; the player most responsible for turning a 4-12 mess into a 13-3 Super Bowl favorite.
Now, I realize it’s almost a league rule that only quarterbacks can be considered for this award, whether it’s the one presented by the Pro Football Writers or the one from The Associated Press or even, indeed, the Player of the Year Award from Sporting News.