Some great teams have one clear MVP candidate. The greatest team has three. Maybe four.
Appearing Monday on Tom Brady’s Let’s Go! podcast on SiriusXM, 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey listed his top two MVP candidates.
“If I had my vote, it’d be Brock [Purdy] as the MVP and Trent [Williams] would be the second in line,” McCaffrey said.
Brady made it clear earlier in the conversation that he cared much more about team achievements when he was playing.
“I felt like the team awards were — which was ultimately winning championships — was what it was all about,” Brady said. “You can have a great individual year and you could be a really good player on a bad team, which is not very much fun. I think for me it was always about celebrating the success with other players and the best moments weren’t accepting a trophy, an MVP trophy. It was accepting a Super Bowl ring with all the people that played a part of that.”
The vast majority of players would rather win a Super Bowl than an individual award. Still, the NFL continues to hand out individual awards. And Brady disclosed for the first time during the latest episode of the podcast that, this year, he has one of the votes — despite the fact that he has a pending deal to buy a piece of the Raiders.
And Brady seems to agree with the notion that Williams deserves MVP consideration.
“I watch big Trent there blocking for everybody,” Brady said. “Not saying that Trent’s gonna take the MVP away, but if there was an award given to the offensive lineman Trent would be the one to get it in my opinion because of what he does up front. He’s pretty unbelievable.”
McCaffrey lobbied Brady to vote for Purdy.
“Vote for Brock, man,” McCaffrey said. “That guy deserves it, man. I know, obviously, you respect that. He’s been unbelievable for this team and I hate when I hear people say anything negative, ‘Oh, he’s just a system quarterback.’ Everyone’s a system quarterback. That’s part of what being a quarterback is in my eyes. I mean, I don’t know much about the position. I try to stay in my lane and just try to get open and block and do all the other things. But I mean, when you play within a system that’s about all you can ask for. And then occasionally you make the plays outside of the X’s and O’s and that’s all he’s done all year. So he gets my vote.”
The challenge for the voters this year comes from ranking the various 49ers candidates (Purdy, McCaffrey, Williams, and receiver Deebo Samuel), and balancing them against the likes of Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, Bills quarterback Josh Allen, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, Dolphins receiver Tyreek Hill, Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, and perhaps even Browns defensive end Myles Garrett and Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield.
It will become more clear once the playoff trees are set in both conference. The voters list five finalst in all, ranking them first through fifth. Will the 49ers players split the votes enough to open the door for someone like Lamar Jackson? It all comes down to how the next three weeks play out.
And, frankly, Lamar can trump all of the 49ers candidates by having a huge game in San Francisco on Christmas night and beating the best team in the league.
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