It’s hard to believe that the 2014 NFL season has already reached its halfway point.
Some teams have high hopes for the second half of the season, while others are already looking forward to next year’s draft.
But every team has at least one player who’s shined above the rest and is worthy of being named MVP. Let’s take a look at these stars.
Arizona Cardinals (6-1)
Tony Jefferson
This selection may shock fans and analysts alike, but the oft-overlooked Jefferson leads the team with 50 tackles. And he’s quietly having a stellar 2014 campaign thus far.
The Cardinals rank 24th on defense and 25th on offense. So how do they have the best record in the NFC?
One of the reasons is that their defensive front bottles up opposing running backs. They allow only 77.9 rushing yards per game which ranks third in the NFL.
Pro Football Focus ranks the second-year man from Oklahoma as the Cardinals’ best run defender. PFF ranks Calais Campbell as their best overall defender by far, but the Cardinals defeated the Washington Redskins and Oakland Raiders without him. They allowed 72 rushing yards to the Redskins and 56 rushing yards at Oakland.
The Cardinals won’t go far in the playoffs without Carson Palmer, but through the midway point in the season, he’s played in just four games. And Jefferson has been one of the strong points in the team’s stout run defense.
Atlanta Falcons (2-6)
Matt Ryan
There’s not much to choose from here. Despite the Falcons’ dismal first half of the season, there’s no doubt that Matt Ryan is the franchise quarterback.
Ryan is eighth in the NFL with 15 touchdown passes and third with 2,306 passing yards. At the Falcons’ high point of the season, a 56-14 dismantling of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 3, Ryan was an efficient 21-of-24 with three touchdowns and no interceptions.
Julio Jones is having another solid season statistically. He’s tied for fourth in the league with 53 receptions and sixth with 734 receiving yards, but he’s dropped six passes this season, according to Pro Football Focus. Only two receivers have dropped more. Jones may have cost the Falcons a win with a key drop late in last Sunday’s game. The Falcons led 21-19 with less than two minutes left and the Lions were out of timeouts, but Jones dropped a third-down pass to stop the clock. The Falcons had to punt, and the Lions drove down the field and kicked the game-winning field goal.
Baltimore Ravens (5-3)
Justin Forsett
The Baltimore Ravens’ midseason MVP is a 28-year-old journeyman running back who is on his fifth team. He battled foot injuries last season in Jacksonville and ran the ball six times for 31 yards. That was for the entire season.
Justin Forsett has rescued the Ravens in the wake of Ray Rice’s downfall. The 5’8″, 197-pounder has run for 571 yards this year, fourth in the NFL, and is well on his way to eclipsing his career high of 619 with the Seattle Seahawks in 2009. He’s averaging 5.5 yards a carry and has emerged as the Ravens’ leading rusher from a committee backfield that also includes Bernard Pierce and Lorenzo Taliaferro.
Forsett’s two best rushing games came in Weeks 6 and 7. He rushed for 111 yards in a 48-17 domination at Tampa Bay and 95 yards in a 29-7 home win over Atlanta. He’s also caught 26 passes this season, which comes in handy on a team in which no receiver other than Steve Smith has caught 20 passes.
Buffalo Bills (5-3)
Kyle Orton
Kyle Orton has a chance to be the first quarterback to lead the Bills to the playoffs since Doug Flutie did in the 1999 season.
Orton has been providing Bills fans with Flutie-like thrills in leading Buffalo to three wins in four games since taking over for bust candidate E.J. Manuel.
In his debut as the Bills’ starting quarterback, Orton led the Bills back from a 14-0 deficit at Detroit. His 10-play, 74-yard drive tied the game at 14-14 in the fourth quarter. Then he completed a 20-yard pass to Sammy Watkins to set up Dan Carpenter’s game-winning, 58-yard field goal in the closing seconds.
In Week 7, Orton threw a two-yard touchdown pass to Watkins in the game’s final second (!) in the Bills’ 17-16 win over the Minnesota Vikings.
The Bills lead the league with 28 sacks, and Marcell Dareus has seven of them. Orton was a spectator for the first quarter of the season, but his performance in the second quarter of the season is enough to make him the Bills’ midseason MVP. He’s thrown for 1,128 yards with nine touchdowns and three interceptions in the four games he’s played. Projected over a full eight-game season to this point, Orton would rank fifth in the league in passing yards and would be tied for fifth in touchdown passes.
Carolina Panthers (3-4-1)
Luke Kuechly
Tight end Greg Olsen is the only worthy midseason MVP candidate on offense. He leads the team with 42 receptions. He and rookie wide receiver Kelvin Benjamin lead the team with five touchdowns apiece.
Luke Kuechly, however, is picking up where he left off as the reigning AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year. He leads the NFL with 89 tackles. He’s also recorded a sack and a forced fumble.
Kuechly’s season high of 15 tackles came in the Panthers’ last win, a 31-24 decision at home over the Chicago Bears in Week 5. Since then, the Panthers have gone 0-2-1 but still lead the NFC South. So they can still win this division and back into the playoffs.
Without Kuechly, there would be an even worse record atop this division, because the Panthers wouldn’t be in first place.
Chicago Bears (3-5)
Matt Forte
It doesn’t take a lot of number crunching to figure this one out.
Matt Forte not only leads the Bears in rushing yards with 562, he also leads the team in receptions with 58 and receiving yards with 490. The only player in the NFL with more receptions than Forte, regardless of position, is Antonio Brown with 60.
Martellus Bennett is one of the top tight ends in the game right now with 47 reception (five touchdowns). Jay Cutler, Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery have been average, but the offense revolves around Forte.
Willie Young is tied for fourth in the league with seven sacks, but the Bears are ranked 18th defensively.
Cincinnati Bengals (4-2-1)
Mohamed Sanu
There are few players more valuable in the NFL than the type of player who takes over for a leading wide receiver and becomes the team’s leading receiver himself.
A.J. Green has missed the last three games with a toe injury, and Mohamed Sanu has caught 18 passes for 299 yards and a touchdown during that stretch. Sanu leads the Bengals with 35 receptions for 533 yards, an average of 15.2 yards per catch. He caught 10 passes for 120 yards and a touchdown in a 37-37 tie against the Panthers in Week 6.
In Sunday’s 27-24 win over the Ravens, Sanu caught five passes for 125 yards and came up big on the Bengals’ first and last possessions. He caught a 48-yarder which led to Dalton’s one-yard touchdown sneak and a 7-0 Bengals lead.
The Bengals trailed 24-20 and were staring at 3rd-and-1o from their own 20 when Dalton found Sanu for a 53-yard connection. Dalton eventually scored the winning touchdown on another one-yard plunge. The Bengals snapped a three-game winless streak and found themselves back atop the AFC North.
Cleveland Browns (4-3)
Brian Hoyer
Journeyman quarterback Brian Hoyer is taking the Browns on quite a journey this year. And Johnny Manziel has had one of the best seats in the house watching the Browns get off to their best start since 2007.
Hoyer has been nothing special statistically speaking. He’s thrown just eight touchdown passes and completed 57.3 percent of his passes. But he’s thrown only two interceptions and led the Browns on two game-winning drives as well as their most convincing win over the (division rival) Steelers in 25 years.
In Week 2, the Browns went 85 yards on 14 plays with less than three minutes left to set up Billy Cundiff’s game-winning field goal with three seconds left in a 26-24 home win over the New Orleans Saints.
The Browns became the first road team to win after being down by 25 in Week 5 at Tennessee. They beat the Titans, 29-28, with Hoyer throwing the winning touchdown pass with just over a minute left. Then came the Browns’ signature 31-10 win over the Steelers.
Hoyer bounced back from a 16-for-41 performance in a loss at Jacksonville and was a solid 19-for-28 with a touchdown Sunday in a 23-13 home win over the Raiders.
Dallas Cowboys (6-2)
DeMarco Murray
The Cowboys ended the first half of the season on a sour note, but they’re one of the NFL biggest surprises this season thanks to DeMarco Murray.
Murray leads the NFL with 1,054 yards through eight games. If he maintains that rate, he’ll break Eric Dickerson’s 30-year-old record of 2,105. Murray has run for at least 100 yards in every game this season and has scored seven touchdowns. His 15-yard touchdown run put the Cowboys ahead, 27-23, with 3:23 left at Seattle in Week 6. And the Cowboys went on to defeat the defending champs in front of the feared 12th Man, 30-23.
The following week, Murray scored from a yard out to increase the Cowboys’ lead over the Giants to 28-14 in a game they won 31-21 at home.
It’s worth noting Murray has provided the Cowboys with his share of headaches as well. He’s lost five fumbles this season. He’s the only non-quarterback to fumble that many times. But he’s certainly helped the Cowboys more than he’s hurt them.
Denver Broncos (6-1)
Peyton Manning
Everyone from Denver to Omaha can figure out who the Broncos’ midseason MVP is.
Peyton Manning threw seven touchdown passes in five days, leading the Broncos to two convincing home victories over playoff contenders. The Broncos hammered the San Francisco 49ers, 42-17, in Week 7 and they beat the San Diego Chargers, 35-21, on Thursday Night Football in Week 8.
Not only are Manning and Andrew Luck historically linked, but they’re side-by-side atop the NFL this season with 22 touchdown passes apiece. Manning, however, has thrown just three interceptions while Luck has thrown nine. And of course Manning out-dueled Luck in a 31-24, season-opening win.
The 38-year-old Manning needs to out-duel Tom Brady on Sunday. If he can’t win at New England for the first time since 2006, he might have to go there again in the playoffs. That would make a second straight Super Bowl appearance a tall order.
Detroit Lions (6-2)
Golden Tate
No Calvin Johnson, no problem. And this all thanks to Golden Tate.
Johnson has missed the last three games with an ankle injury, and combined for just three receptions in the two games before that. But Tate, signed as a free agent from Seattle during the offseason, has done more than fill in for Megatron. He’s caught 24 passes for 349 yards and two touchdowns in the three games the Lions have been without Johnson. Tate’s 55 receptions rank third in the league, and he’s caught at least five passes in every game.
In Week 7, the Lions trailed the Saints, 23-10, at home with less than four minutes remaining when Tate hauled in a 73-yard touchdown pass from Matthew Stafford on 3rd-and-14. The Lions went on to win, 24-23, to improve to 5-2. Tate caught 10 passes in that game and seven more in the Lions’ 22-21 win over the Falcons Sunday in London.
Green Bay Packers (5-3)
Aaron Rodgers
Aaron Rodgers had this award wrapped up when he went all Dan Marino in Miami.
The Packers were down, 24-20, to the Dolphins. And they were out of timeouts when Rodgers faked a spike and threw a 12-yard pass to Davante Adams to get to the Dolphins’ 4-yard line with six seconds left. He then threw the game-winning touchdown pass to Andrew Quarless.
Rodgers orchestrated another comeback in Week 2. But it wasn’t so dramatic because he had the comeback completed by the end of the third quarter.
The Packers were in danger of falling to 0-2 down 21-3 to the Jets in the second quarter at Green Bay. Rodgers led the Packers back and threw an 80-yard touchdown pass to Jordy Nelson to make it 31-24 and end the game’s scoring.
Rodgers’ streak of six straight games without an interception came to a screeching halt Sunday night at New Orleans. He threw two in a 44-32 loss. But no team has won at the Superdome since 2012, and Rodgers still threw for a season-high 418 yards and ran for a touchdown despite an aching hamstring.
Rodgers has thrown for 19 touchdowns and three interceptions. His 113.6 quarterback rating is second only to Peyton Manning.
Houston Texans (4-4)
J.J. Watt
Arian Foster has run for more than 100 yards in four straight games, but J.J. Watt has been all over the Texans’ stat sheet this season.
Watt is tied for fourth in the NFL with seven sacks. He welcomed Titans quarterback Zach Mettenberger to the NFL with two sacks and forced a fumble Sunday in the Texans’ 30-16 win at Tennessee. He returned an interception 80 yards for a touchdown in a 23-17 win over the Buffalo Bills. He recovered a fumble and returned it 45 yards for a touchdown to keep the Texans in the game in the fourth quarter of their 33-28 loss to the Colts. Watt has helped out on offense and special teams, too. He put on his tight end hat and caught a touchdown pass in a 30-14 win at Oakland in Week 2, and blocked an extra point in a season-opening win over the Washington Redskins.
The 6’5″, 289-pound Watt also leads all defensive linemen with seven pass breakups this season, according to ESPN.com. The $100 million man is worth every penny.
Indianapolis Colts (5-3)
Andrew Luck
Andrew Luck might be the most appropriately named quarterback in NFL history. The Colts deserve credit for being wise enough to draft Luck, but they’re also fortunate to have a quarterback who doesn’t make them miss Peyton Manning.
Luck has thrown for a league-leading 2,731 yards. He’s on pace for 5,462 yards this season, just 15 short of the record Manning set last season with the Broncos. He’s tied with Manning atop the league with 22 touchdown passes.
Luck has thrown nine interceptions, which is a bit much, but after an 0-2 start he got the Colts to .500 with two straight four-touchdown performances and led them to a five-game winning streak before Sunday’s loss.
T.Y. Hilton leads the NFL with 866 receiving yards, but Luck is the reason the Colts are Super Bowl contenders.
Jacksonville Jaguars (1-7)
Paul Posluszny
Typical of the Jaguars’ fortune, their midseason MVP is now out for the season. And his season-ending injury happened during their only win.
Paul Posluszny, Jacksonville’s only Pro Bowler last year, tore his pectoral muscle during the Jaguars’ 24-6 win over the Browns in Week 7. Before the injury, he recovered a fumble early in the third quarter, leading to a field goal that increased the Jaguars’ lead to 10-6. Then in the fourth quarter he sacked Brian Hoyer, his second sack of the season. The score was still 10-6 and the Browns were nearing field-goal range, but Posluszny’s sack dragged them back to the 41 and they eventually punted.
Posluszny led the Jags in tackles with 69 when he went down.
Kansas City Chiefs (4-3)
Justin Houston
Knile Davis helped the Chiefs weather Jamaal Charles’ absence earlier in the season. He leads the team with 401 rushing yards. On Sunday, Davis returned the opening kickoff of the second half 99 yards for a touchdown to increase the Chiefs’ lead to 17-7 in an eventual 34-7 rout of St. Louis.
But Justin Houston leads the NFL with 10 sacks and is on pace possibly break Michael Strahan’s single-season record of 22.5. Three of Houston’s sacks came in Sunday’s home victory over the Rams. Two of them, along with a forced fumble, came in the Chiefs’ 41-14 thrashing of the New England Patriots in Week 4 on Monday Night Football. The Patriots haven’t lost since. So that win gains value with each passing week. The outside linebacker also had a season-high seven tackles in that game.
Houston has been the heart of the Chiefs’ pass defense this season. Kansas City is tied for fourth in the league with four sacks, and that pass rush has been in a factor in the Chiefs’ No. 1 passing defense this season. Kansas City is the only team that’s allowed less than 200 passing yards per game (195.7).
Davis will just have to be content with being the NFL’s best fantasy football handcuff.