Clearly, the Vikings will never lose another game. No missed kick, turnover or late-game officiating blunder can prevent them from refusing to do anything but win by eight or fewer points.
Don't tell Justin Jefferson: A receiver has never been the NFL's MVP
On the NFL: It may have been the easiest question that Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell has ever been asked. But somehow he ducked out on answering it and earned good-guy credit at the same time.
November 16, 2022 at 12:23PM
So let's move on to matters more pressing than this team obviously going 19-1, defeating Patrick Mahomes by one score and winning its first Super Bowl.
Let's use this space to fire off the most loaded softball question that young Kevin O'Connell will see through Week 11 of his rookie season as an NFL head coach.
Hang on, Kev, here goes:
"Oh, geez, if ya keep dis up, who would ya pick to win NFL Most Valuable Player? Kirk Cousins or Justin Jefferson?"
O'Connell: "I definitely don't think I can answer that question because I just know how both … and I don't mean to not answer your question … that doesn't seem like much of a softball …"
O'Connell was way too smart to answer that one. The fact he spent 1 minute, 33 seconds entertaining this reporter's hypothetical lob earns him extra good-guy credit.
"I can tell you they're both incredibly impactful reasons why we're 8-1," O'Connell said. "The way we're winning, you don't do without critical, high-level play from your quarterback. And a lot of those plays end up going No. 18's way.
"To answer your question, I'll let you guys figure that out."
Thanks anyways, Kev. We'll keep you posted. Until then, this reporter, who owns one of the 50 votes that pick the NFL honors and All-Pro team will wonder whether Jefferson can pull off the unthinkable and become the first receiver to win MVP.
To do so would be to accomplish a feat that would make Sunday's one-handed catch seem just OK and not universally acclaimed as perhaps the best catch anyone's ever seen.
But, hey, who knows what might catch a voter's eye? The Vikings are the league's hottest team. They're about to play the television darlings from Dallas in the late-afternoon national game.
And …
Yes, it's a quarterback league, but even Kirko Chainz is riding shotgun to Jefferson's red-hot star power after Sunday's one-handed grab during a 10-catch, 193-yard, one-touchdown performance in a 33-30 upset over presumed MVP front-runner Josh Allen in Buffalo.
Right, Tom Brady?
"That has gotta be one of the great catches in NFL history," the G.O.A.T. himself said on the SiriusXM podcast, "Let's Go! with Tom Brady, Larry Fitzgerald and Jim Gray." "And what a great young player Justin is. I watch him every week and I always think it's impressive for the guys that have that ability and they get so much coverage focused on them and they still find a way to come up with 100-yard receiving games every single week."
Brady wasn't asked about Jefferson's MVP candidacy. Probably because no one talks about receivers and MVPs in the same breath.
The Associated Press has been picking the league-recognized MVP since 1957. A kicker — Washington's Mark Moseley — won it in 1982 when he missed three extra points.
As for a receiver, well, not even Jerry Rice himself could crack that barrier. In 1987, the strike year, he caught a then-record 22 touchdowns in 12 games. He got 30 votes, finishing second behind John Elway (36) and one spot ahead of teammate Joe Montana (18).
AP voters have cast 1,200 ballots since 1998. Only five votes have gone to receivers — four to Randy Moss when he set the rookie record of 17 touchdown catches in 1998 and one to Cooper Kupp last season when he led the league receptions, receiving yards and touchdown catches.
Jefferson ranks fourth in catches (69), second in yards (1,060) and tied for 16th in touchdowns (four).
In 2007, Moss broke Rice's record for receiving touchdowns with 23. His quarterback, Brady, got 49 of 50 votes. Brett Favre got the other one.
A quarterback has won this award every year since Adrian Peterson's 2,000-yard rushing season in 2012. Irony of ironies, Cousins probably doesn't have the stats to compete for the award this year. Known as a great stats guy when he was plodding along as a .500 quarterback for years, he's now 8-1, playing his best football and posting a 20th-ranked passer rating (87.0) that would be the third-worst of his career.
O'Connell, of course, is less focused on how Cousins' eight interceptions exceed last year's total and more focused on how the eight wins match last year's totals for both Cousins and Jefferson.
"Both of them continue to prove to me that they're huge parts of not only what we are now," said O'Connell, "but what we'll be moving forward."
Mike Conley was in Minneapolis, where he sounded the Gjallarhorn at the Vikings game, on Sunday during the robbery.
