Deciding the NFL’s Most Valuable Player after four weeks is a tough task. There’s obviously multiple players who stand out above the rest, and one name in the mix for the award resides in the AFC West. That player is none other than Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr. While he’s in the conversation, he is not the league’s MVP to this point.
While Colin Cowherd of The Herd decided to make his case for Carr as the league’s MVP, and it’s a solid one, there’s something that’s not being considered by the T.V. and radio personality. That’s the fact that there are players who are just better than Carr has been.
Here’s a look at Cowherd’s statement about Carr, and the video to go along with it, per The Herd’s Twitter.
Cowherd chose to compare Carr to New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady in one way, which is fine. Unfortunately, part of Cowherd’s argument about the Raiders quarterback being the MVP is that the team would have lost games against the New Orleans Saints, Baltimore Ravens and San Diego Chargers without him. Those three teams combined are 5-9 on the year, and the only reason that doesn’t look even worse is that the Ravens have had a brutally easy schedule to this point.
Cowherd’s belief that Carr is the NFL’s MVP to this point seems focused entirely on just the Raiders, and not what’s going on in the rest of the league. Out of the Raiders’ five games this season, he’s had one truly impressive performance, which came against the Ravens, who do have a strong defense. Aside from that, he torched the miserable Atlanta Falcons defense, who has allowed 290.2 yards per game (No. 26 in the NFL) through the air this year.
The question becomes, how can you feasibly argue Carr, over a guy like Matt Ryan? Here’s how the numbers look between the two:
- Carr: 4-1 record, 102.3 QB rating, 66.8 completion percentage, 1,383 yards, 11 touchdowns, two interceptions
- Ryan: 4-1 record, 121.6 QB rating, 69 completion percentage, 1,740 yards, 12 touchdowns, two interceptions.
To take that even one step further, Ryan and the Falcons defeated Carr and the Raiders during their Week 2 matchup that was played in Oakland. It’s hard not to factor that into the equation in a big way, but also look at the fact that Ryan has thrown for 500 yards against last year’s NFC champions, and just went to Denver and defeated the Broncos while posting a QB rating almost the same as Carr’s year-long rating.
It’s Ryan, and Week 5 made it even tougher to debate that. Carr is great, but the MVP would go to the guy who has the better numbers and better wins (at Raiders, at Saints, vs. Panthers, at Broncos) at the end of the day. And to tack on to all of that, you can look at the fact that Carr has completed more passes and thrown more passes, yet his numbers still aren’t on par with Ryan’s.
Carr could catch him when all is said and done, but it’s hard to envision that happening, at least with how the Atlanta offense is playing thus far.
