Friday, March 29

Why the Colts’ Jonathan Taylor won SN’s NFL Offensive Player of the Year over the Rams’ Cooper Kupp



The NFL is a great passing league. But there’s also room for a running back to win the league’s highest honor.

That’s the case for the Colts’ Jonathan Taylor, voted by other NFL players as the Sporting News Offensive Player of the Year. He becomes the first running back since the Vikings’ Adrian Peterson in 2012 to win the award. ending an eight-year quarterback streak. He becomes the first Indianapolis Colt to earn the honor since Peyton Manning in 2003 and 2004.

Taylor led the league in rushing yards (1,811), rushing attempts (338) and rushing touchdowns (18) averaging 5.5 yards per attempt and 106.5 yards per game. He also led the league with 2,171 scrimmage yards and 20 total TDs, with a 9-year receiving average of 40 receptions.

Taylor surpassed the Rams’ Cooper Kupp, who won the rare wide receiver “triple crown” by leading the league in receptions (145), receiving yards (1,947) and receiving touchdowns (16). He averaged 114.5 receiving yards per game.

What’s notable is that of the previous wide receivers to accomplish Kupp’s feat, only Jerry Rice in 1990 was named what was then “Sporting News NFL Player of the Year,” regardless of offense or defense.

MORE SN 2021 NFL AWARDS:
Full voting results | All Pro Team

Taylor’s production from the position has a strong history of winning the award. Aside from Peterson, recent winning runners LaDainian Tomlinson, Shaun Alexander, Marshall Faulk, Terrell Davis and Barry Sanders put up prolific complete numbers to be recognized by their peers.

Kupp’s Rams team is playing in Super Bowl 56, while Taylor’s Colts faded out of the AFC playoffs in Week 18. With OPOY being different from MVP, Taylor’s statistical value relative to everyone else running backs, especially when Derrick Henry went down, got more weight Kupp has a big gap over other receivers.

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Because Kupp is a star in the passing game, he also had to worry about MVP-candidate quarterbacks like Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen cutting their votes, which is what happened. Taylor had no competition at his position, while Kupp was grouped with the elite quarterbacks. Dominant workhorses in the modern era also get a lot of respect, since there are far fewer of them in the league.

The Sporting News story hasn’t been much in the wide receivers’ favor, either. Rice was the only and last wide receiver to win from position for his 1990 triple crown. That was his second award. Don Hutson’s dominance came before the SN awards began and both Sterling Sharpe and Steve Smith received little attention during their modern triple crown years. Randy Moss, Terrell Owens, Calvin Johnson and other Hall of Famers also failed to win to follow Rice.

In the end, it’s not about snubbing Kupp. He had an outstanding season and will receive a lot of worthy accolades for it. But based on previous SN awards, you could tell that Taylor won because of the position he plays.




www.sportingnews.com

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