NFL Mid-Season Awards

Being halfway through the NFL regular season is crazy. It feels like yesterday we were kicking off week 1, with nothing but green grass and good times ahead.

Nine weeks later, half of the NFL is basically eliminated from playoff contention, teams that were playoff-bound haven't won a game, and seasons are slipping away with every passing week.

This isn't to say that the season hasn’t been incredible - of course it has been, it always is.

We do mid-season awards a bit differently on this show. I'll give my MVP, but no one wants to hear who my DPOY choice is. So without further ado, let's start the show.

MVP

I know this is an old picture, but it never gets old. Neither does Joey B slinging it to the best WR duo in the league like he's been for the last month.

Joe Shiesty has been BALLIN.

Statistically, he ranks 1st in yards per game (298.3 YPG), 1st in completion percentage (74.0%), 1st in TDs (23), 2nd in QBR, and 1st in QB rating for QBs that have played a full season so far.

The Bengals also have a 6-2 record and are a win away on Sunday night to being the 2 seed in the AFC. So that's pretty self-explanatory.

When you dig a little deeper, the numbers stand out even more.

The Bengals don't have a run game. Through 8 games, they're 30th in the league in rushing at just 85 YPG, and Chase Brown hasn't lived up to his preseason expectations.

So the offense, who's among the best in the league, is solely on Joe and the passing attack.

The game plans are often indicitive of a 50+ throw game, but due to Joe's efficiency (league-leading completion percentage), he's only notched two games with over 40 throws this season.

He's playing some of the best ball in his career, he's healthy, his receivers are healthy, and the schedule isn't too tough. If I were to give out the award today he gets my vote. If I had to bet on who gets it at the end of the year, I'm even more confident.

Coach of the Year

There's actually a lot of good candidates for this award at this point in the season (honorable mentions Ben Johnson, Todd Monken, Joe Brady, Mike McCarthy, John Harbaugh) but Liam Coen takes the cake for me.

We can talk about the Jags 6-2 record and having the largest +/- in the league at +108 through eight games. We can walk through where I see them in the NFL power rankings.

But for me it starts and stops with what's he's done with/for Trevor Lawrence (and what he left in Tampa).

Trevor was an average at best QB for the first five years of his career. The talent was always there, he'd make highlight worthy throws on a weekly basis, but the consistency never matched it.

He was way too turnover heavy, made way too many mental mistakes for me to take him seriously as a top-tier QB. I even criticized the Jags for giving him the contract they did (although I acknolwdged they were between a rock and a hard place with that).

Under Liam Coen Trevor is an upper echelon QB, playing the best ball of his career. He's right up there with Joe Burrow in the MVP race, and if he keeps his play up I'd call the Jags the most dangerous team in the league heading into the playoffs.

That's all because of Liam Coen. How do I know that? Just look at his old stomping grounds.

With Coen calling the shots in Tampa, Baker and that offense were among the league's best units. Since his departure, they've fallen off a cliff.

In 2024 the Bucs scored 502 points, good for 4th in the league at 30 PPG. In the season and a half since his departure, the Bucs have scored just 558 cumulative points, averaging over a TD less per game. Baker hasn't looked the same, the offense lacks creativity, and they are now relying solely on their defense to win games.

That's the Liam Coen effect. He may just be the best coach in the league.

Game of the Year

Maybe not so much the first half, but the second half of this game was pure cinema.

It had it all. Two two-point conversions (including a pass that felt like it went through a Rams defender's back. It had a pick six. It had a referee controversy. It had 21 points scored in the final 5 minutes. And it ended with a failed Hail Mary attempt.

It was the Broncos game of all time. I may give them shit, shit that I feel is well deserved, but boy is that team entertaining.

This was one of the games from this season that I vividly remember not being able to fall asleep to right after cause it was so good - and I didn't have a dog in the fight.

That's the sign of a great game. There's potential for these two teams to meet again, too.

Play of the Year

Call me bias all you want. I think this an objective top 3-4 play of the year, and maybe my bias brings it up to 1.

But think about the significance of the play.

Beyond the unbelievable physical talent, this play changed the course of the Patriots season.

The Pats were flat to start the year, and went to Buffalo at 1-2 coming off an absolute beatdown in Jacksonville. They were hanging tight with the Bills, but this play gave them the lead they never surrendered. The win put them back on track, and despite some more bumps we're currently experiencing, back in the playoff hunt.

A great play can be made at any time. But the best plays have to be tied to significance. The Jamarr Chase acrobatic TD against Houston was an incredible play, but was too early in the game to have significant meaning. The Josh Allen flick TD against the Raiders was amazing, but that was also to take a 10-point lead against an inferior opponent mid-3rd quarter.

The Chism play was just great, it was important. To me, that matters.

Worst Take of the Year

This one's obvious. This idiot picked the Chargers to win - yes, win - the AFC West. It pains me to even read my words.

I promise you I'm as shocked as you are that this is my pick. I've long been a Chargers hater, and I've long been proved right. The team that should be, with the quarterback that should be, never is. It's just the way of the world.

But something about this year feels different. Maybe it's that their QB became the newest celebrity couple to get engaged way too fast. Maybe it's that the QB's brother was just signed to the team this week, or that Jim Harbaugh's outlandish praise of Justin Herbert is finally getting to me.

The actual reason (or reasons) are 1) Mike McDaniel coming on board, 2) the offensive line being healthy (for now) and 3) the defense, one of the more underrated defenses in the league, having little to any turnover.

I think it's natural for people to think McDaniel will uncage Justin Herbert, but what I'm most intrigued about is the run game. In McDaniel's last two stops, the 49ers and Dolphins, when things were clicking, the run game in both places was electric, and it didn't matter who was back there. He made Raheem Mostert a household name. Most people reading this probably know the name Elijah Mitchell.

The run is where McDaniel excels, and with a healthy offensive line I think the Chargers will run the ball down opponents' throats. McDaniel also brought along FB Alec Ingold which is an under the radar move.

Herbert won't have to put on the Superman cape he did last year that left Harbaugh red-faced and starry eyed. The defense will be good again, and they'll control the clock on offense. I really like this team.

I don't need to say anything else. I couldn't have been more wrong, and I couldn't feel more shame. Never again will I be this stupid.

Best Take of the Year

When you make a lot of takes, you're bound to have some good ones. And I think I nailed this one on the head.

This feels like it for the Bengals. They desperately need to have a full season of Joe Burrow being healthy. They desperately need to find themselves in the postseason again. And they desperately need to play some fucking defense.

Arguably the best pickup of the offseason in the NFL was Dexter Lawrence to Cincinnati. A defensive line that got demolished on the ground last season will have someone to plug holes in the middle, while also being an offensive lineman's worst nightmare in pass rush. He should also bring some swagger to this side of the ball they haven't had since they went to the Super Bowl. It sucks they lost Trey Hendrickson, especially in division, but they signed Boye Mafe from Seattle to replace him and Jonathan Allen as another veteran. So the line should be better.

The secondary added Bryan Cook from the Chiefs and Kyle Duggar, who from his time in New England proved he can be an effective player in the right system. So they've made a conscious effort to improve.

If the offense is healthy the defense only needs to be average at best. No one in NFL history has lost more games when scoring 30 points than the Bengals the last two seasons. So if they can keep opponents to 28 points or less, they should win a lot of games.

Joe is hungry. The whole organization should be. I think they put it all together, and end up as the 1 seed.

I nailed just about all of that. Dexter Lawrence has been a total game changer for this defense. The secondary has also improved, as has the defense as a whole.

The Bengals have scored more than 30 points five times; they're 5-0 in those games. And they've allowed more than 28 points just twice so far.

Joe and the main weapons on offense are all healthy, and they're arguably the hottest offense in the league.

The sit one game out of the 1 seed, with a far more favorable schedule than the Bills and Jags who are the two most likely candidates for the first round bye.

I think this is the Bengals year.* I think they do end up as the 1 seed in the AFC. Just as I predicted.

*They do need to start to run more effectively if they want to win the Super Bowl, tho.