Drew Brees broke Dan Marino's passing yards in a season record last night. He did it with a game still to play. In the process, the Saints clinched their division, and so Brees might not play depending on how Sean Payton feels about how the 49ers will do in week 17, but let it not be forgotten how unbelievable of a performance Brees has turned in this season. Despite sometimes rocky play in the first half, Brees has delivered the goods time and again in 2011; just like Montee Ball's soon-to-be touchdown record over Barry Sanders should not exist or at least have a monstrous asterisk by it, so too should Bree's passing record if he doesn't play an entire four quarters next week.
Aaron Rodgers will probably win the MVP this year, because that's how the MVP works. He and Brees' stats will finish at relatively similar levels, with each guy taking a few of the key categories that we look to for verification on quality of quarterback play (completion percentage, yards per attempt, touchdowns, interceptions, quarterback rating, Total QBR). Even as a Packers fan though, I can't argue with Brees as the MVP of the 2011 season. It wasn't even close early on, but Rodgers has opened the door in the last three or four weeks, and Brees has walked in. And above anything else, he has set a record this season. Four weeks ago, we were hearing about the possibility of Rodgers breaking the single-season completion percentage record set by Brees two years before while at the same time hearing about the impossibility of Brees keeping up his incredible passing yards-per-game pace. Now? Brees is almost three percentage points closer than Rodgers to breaking his own record, and has not missed a beat in the yards department.
It is truly one of the great accomplishments in modern sport. Despite the pass-heavy offenses we are growing accustomed to in this day of NFL Football, Brees' mark stands alone. He has thrown for 5,087 yards in 15 games this season. That's 339 passing yards per game. I don't care what happens in the NFL for the next 50 years, I'm not betting on a guy averaging 340 per game. The statistic is mindboggling. When Peyton Manning broke a record, he was the MVP. When Tom Brady broke the same record a couple years later, he won the MVP. Heck, when LaDainian Tomlinson and Shaun Alexander set records, they were MVPs. How does Brees not qualify? For a season in which his stats are more or less as good as his top competitor, he set an NFL record. To me, with a not-quite undefeated Packers team, that is the difference. Brees was transcendent, Rodgers just barely missed transcendence.
Since we won't get to see which one of them will represent the NFC in the Super Bowl before the award is given out, I'm going with MVBrees.
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