Colts had no business winning six games, let alone making a playoff push
Getty ImagesAndrew Luck has led the Colts to a 9-4 record this season.
TRASH TALK
By Michael Ventre
NBCSports.com contributor
updated 11:49 p.m. ET Dec. 10, 2012
If Johnny Manziel can win the Heisman Trophy as a freshman, why can?t Andrew Luck be considered NFL MVP as a rookie?
They?re all subjective awards. But the Heisman is given to the best player in college football. The MVP is not. The MVP is given to the Most Valuable Player.
And who has been more valuable this year than Luck?
Certainly people like Peyton Manning of the Denver Broncos and Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings are worthy of serious consideration. They?re extremely valuable to their teams, and they?re having terrific seasons.
But none of those men is on a team that was projected to be as awful as the Indianapolis Colts were expected to be this season. They were the worst team in the league last year. They were expected to win between three to six games in 2012, and that was if everything went well. The roster was in rebuilding mode.
Chuck Pagano was in his first year as head coach when he got the news that he had leukemia and needed to take a leave to get treatment, which created the possibility of a team adrift without leadership.
Instead, Luck stepped up in a major way. The Colts are 9-4, and much of their success is due to their first-year QB. He has engineered six fourth-quarter comebacks in 2012. That?s absolutely astonishing.
Rookie quarterbacks are supposed to learn on the job. They?re not supposed to take a team from the basement to a likely postseason berth in their first season.
There have been plenty of valuable players in the NFL this year. But when you ponder the magnitude of what Luck has done with the Colts, he is the most valuable player in the league. Like Johnny Manziel, he should have hardware to hoist at the end of this season.
Larry Fitz a waste?
Rarely will you hear someone called ?the biggest waste of money in football? and have it be considered a huge compliment. But that?s what we have in Larry Fitzgerald.
The Arizona Cardinals? star is one of the league's top five receivers, maybe even top three, and maybe even No. 1 if he had someone like Aaron Rodgers or Peyton Manning throwing him the football. But of course he doesn?t.
Fitzgerald is coming off a game Sunday in which he had one reception for two yards in a 58-0 embarrassment against the Seahawks in Seattle. He has 57 catches this year. With three games left ? starting with Sunday?s outing against the visiting Detroit Lions ? he is projected to finish the 2012 season with 70, which would be his worst output since he grabbed 69 in 2006.
And when you consider the level of quarterbacking Arizona is getting, right now the focus should be on getting Fitzgerald two more catches over these next three games, so he can be assured it won?t be his worst year ever (that would be 58 catches in his rookie season of 2004).He also only has four touchdowns; his worst output has been six, achieved twice in his career. That dubious mark is within reach. His streak of 1,000-yard seasons looks almost certain to end at five, especially with guys like John Skelton and Ryan Lindley throwing the football.
Fitzgerald is as great a guy as he is a football player. But when you consider that he signed an eight-year, $120 million contract in 2011 and you take a look at his production this season, the only conclusion is this:
What a waste of money.
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Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/50154220/ns/sports-nfl/
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