Not even mentioned as a possible MVP candidate? He has had a historical season, joining all time greats in both consecutive 200+ yards games and 3 200+ yard games in a single season. He has balanced out the Dolphins offense and has been the biggest reason for the turnaround from 1-4 to the playoffs, on a franchise that hasn't been there since 2008. MOST. VALUABLE. PLAYER. He's run with the power of Ricky Williams and has shown both speed and vision that NFL stars are made of. He's the MVP of a miraculous season and clearly as responsible for our teams success as much as any other player in the NFL. I'm not saying he should be MVP- All I'm saying is that he should be part of the debate. The raw stats don't paint the full impact he has had.
I also don't think we truly appreciate him as much as we should. I'm just as guilty. We've been caught up in endless QB debates, forgetting to step back and admire / praise what he has done this season. The guy has been every bit as beast as prime Ricky Williams in Miami. He may not have the ability to be a major threat in the passing game yet but is running with brute force and breaking tackles on nearly every play. Simply outstanding. This guy will be a superstar next season.
If Ajayi played for Denver, Green Bay or New England, then he may be in the MVP conversation. You have to remember though that most "expert analysts" didn't even remember that Miami had a team at the beginning of this season- that's what happens when you're average for 15 years. People just don't notice guys that deserve nods like Reshad Jones last season. The playoffs is where that conversation changes though because you're guaranteed to get quality analysts (Chris Collinsworth, etc.) that do their homework before every game to educate the talking heads out there. If Ajayi rumbles out 200 yards in week 18, then the world will finally know how talented he really is. Stomping New England will go a long ways as well.
MVP is stretching it, at least based on recent history. First almost always QB's win the MVP award (wouldn't be surprised if it's Brady again!), and last few times a RB won it they had insane stats, like Adrian Peterson in 2012 with over 2000 yards, or LaDainian Tomlinson in 2006 with over 1800 yards, or Shaun Alexander in 2005 also with over 1800 yards. Regarding the Pro-Bowl, I think he would have made it had the voting occurred after his 3rd 200+ yard gain. Voting was on Dec. 20th before the Buffalo game.
I agree wholeheartedly with what you are saying but at the same time the award recognizes players that have contributed at a high level and are most responsible for a teams success. I think he fits that criteria regardless of how he started the season which skews his numbers down.
He's only had 4 100 games, no way can you give him MVP based on that, there are 2 RBs in the league avg 100+ yds per game, Bell, who was suspended for the first 3 games has 6 100yd games, he also caught 75 passes for another 600yds, EE has 7 100 yd games and 15 TDs. Nowadays, the MVP is the NFL MVP, not really what it was traditionally, which was the most important player to a winning team, so he'd have to be hands down the best RB in the NFL to get the award. Not that it diminishes JayJay at all, but he didn't even earn a pro bowl bid, and justifiably so, the 3 guys ahead of him had better seasons. He's a beast, but he's not in the MVP running because he hasn't earned it, the last RB that won it was AP, he had 2000 yds back in 2012, before that it was LDT in '06, 2300yds from scrimmage, and a mind blowing 31 TDs. JayJay is not in that stratosphere this year, he's not close enough to get any serious consideration for MVP.
Ajayi has been awesome and his omission from the Pro Bowl is a pretty big snub but I don't think he's MVP caliber. Having said that, isn't it nice to see a bit of a resurgence in the run game this year? I'm not talking about just the Dolphins, I'm talking lead wide. There are 9 runners who have already topped 1000 yards and likely 5 more will hit the milestone next week. Last year only 7 backs ended the season with an 1000 yard season.
to me it hasn't been the yardage that has made Ajayi valuable, it was his big, timely, game-changing runs. his teams won because of 3-4 huge runs, late in the game. that is valuable, what what do I know?
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2016/12/28/jay-ajayi-named-afc-offensive-player-of-the-week-2/ Named AFC offensive player of the week for the third time.
Well I'm not sure about that, EE leads the league in yds, and is 2nd in TDs, and he's not getting it either, Blount has 100 fewer yds than Jay, but twice the amount of TDs, he leads the league, and he's not getting it either. You can easily make the case that both those guys have had more to do with the success of their teams, as they have been much more productive, but again, they aren't getting it, despite the fact they play for Dal and NE. How about Bell, he has a whopping 1900yds from scrimmage in only 12 games, and 1 more TD than Jay, and he's not getting it either. The reason why none of these guys are getting it is Matt Ryan, Aaron Rodgers, Derek Carr, Ben Roethlisberger and Tom Brady. Ryan will most likely get it, he's had a monster season, 3rd in yds, 3rd in TDs and 1st in rating, and his rating is currently the 5th highest of all time 115.5. Rodgers is probably the guy who really deserves it, GB sucks, he is absolutely the only reason they are in contention for their div title. If Rodgers isn't the guy that most deserves it, then Carr is, the Raiders wouldn't be in the playoffs without him. Then there is Ben, they start out 4-1, Ben gets injured, 4 game losing streak, Ben gets healthy, 6 game winning streak, so maybe he deserves it more than anyone, because without him they can't win, and with him they can't lose, pretty dramatic impact there. Then you have Brady, extrapolate his numbers over 16 games, 4800yds, 36 TDs and 3 INTs for a 110 rating. Truth is, fair or not, Brady, Carr and Ben aren't getting it because their numbers aren't high enough. Imo this is a 2 horse race, Ryan and Rodgers, with Carr as a dark horse. There's no case to be made that Jay has been more important than any of these guys, especially when you look at how isolated his success has been, he's cracked 80 yds in a game 4 times, 70yds 6 times, 50 yds 8 times. Compare that to Bell, he's only played in 12 games, 11 have seen 50yds, 8 games over 70, 8 games over 80, and 6 games over 100, this is leaving out his rec, Bell avgs 170 yds from scrimmage per game, lol. So Jay can't compete with Bell, who's only played 12 games, and Bell can't compete with Ryan or Rodgers. There's no way you can blame this on what team who plays for, because chances are, even with the stellar play of RBs and QBs from Dal and NE, the guy from Atl is probably taking home the hardware.
Suspended players during the year should not even be eligible. How can you be most valuable when you intentially do the wrong things and arent available for games because of it. No extrapalation. No acculades.
What was Miami's record before Ajayi started and began playing regularly? What was it after? Once the 200-yard games, followed by the 100-yard game against the Jets came in, Miami HAD to be defended differently. All of a sudden, QB ratings started trending upward. The defense was resting more. And the wins rolled in. While I agree, for reasons mentioned in above posts, Jay wasn't a real candidate for League MVP, he's definitely Miami's MVP. And the 1-4 record before he became the main cog in the Dolphins offense compared to the 9-1 after, well, that suggests his value to the Dolphins pretty much compares to any of the other MVP candidates value to their teams, even if his raw stats aren't good enough to have him as a true MVP candidate. It's not hard to see why, as a Dolphins fan, the OP is asking the question.
lol... Ajayi has had 4 games with over 100 yards. 6 games under 50 yards. 3 gamed under 80. RT had his best games of the season when Ajayi had a couple of his worst. The key, as has been mentioned before, was O-line. Their O-line, when healthy this year, has allowed RT time to find the open receiver. I love Ajayi. He's not, IMO, MVP for the Dolphins.
When Tannehill/Landry were the focus of the Dolphins offense, we went 1-4. As good as Wake and Suh have been, our defense, while opportunistic, has been close to historically bad. Pouncey has played four games. The only single player one can point to and say, "Everything changed when..." is Jay Ajayi. Even in some of his lower yardage games, like Baltimore, his average per carry was still pretty high. When he was getting hit in the backfield consistently, he still managed some impressive runs, even if they were for two yards. His presence made defenses have to have a focus. Who else is the Dolphins MVP?
My definition of MVP is this: At the end of the year when all is said and done if I were asked to draft a team for THAT SEASON based on performance which player in the NFL would I draft #1 overall? To me it has nothing to do with how valuable to his team. By my definition Jay probably isn't in my top 25 for MVP.
It's gotten to the point that the best Qb will win every year. MVQ. There's so much volume in these passing offenses like GB, NE.... That it's hard to ignore that they're averaging 3 scores a game. Cam Newton was the primary RedZone threat as well as an above average passer... So that works too.. A WR who gets 2000 yards and 20 TDs will be second fiddle to his Qb. You'll need 2000 & 25 TDs as a HB to come close to winning an MVP in this league. Defenders? Forget about it.
I'm kinda, like, the biggest (or one of the biggest) Tannehill fans around...and my pick for 2016 Dolphins MVP is Jay Ajayi. Everybody sees it their own way I guess...just my 2 cents.
Even when he's not throwing up 100 yards, he's running HARD...making the defense sell out for him. On top of that...3 200 yard games is no joke. Over 1200 yards and missed a LOT of snaps early on (31 carries first 5 games...had more than that last week). Easy choice IMO.
I'm not saying that he's not a huge factor for the success of this season. If someone wants to anoint him the Dolphins MVP that's fine. There is a strong case for that. I'm just pointing out that he has been very inconsistent this season and NFL MVP is a reach. And again, I love the way he plays.
I did reach a bit.. Yes.. I also had a few drinks that evening + vaporizer so I was feeling a bit idealistic and happy My point remains - While statistically everything you say cannot be debated, I stand by my contention that Jay Ajayi has been as instrumental in a team winning games than any other player in the NFL this season. To me, that is the measure of an MVP.
