Midseason NFL awards: Patrick ...

Mookie Betts Midseason awards! This week’s Four Verts column is dedicated to the players and moments that have made the 2022 NFL season so special and memorable. The usual group of awards are here, but they don’t encapsulate everything we’re watching. A few new awards have been added that the NFL should consider adopting to paint a more complete picture of the league. Let’s jump in. 

MVP: Patrick Mahomes

Patrick Mahomes is still Patrick Mahomes. The Chiefs quarterback has been invaluable this year, showing he can still lead an elite passing game while trying to ingratiate a new set of wide receivers into the offense. The Chiefs' offense will work as long as No. 15 is under center. That makes him the most valuable player in the league and one of the most valuable players in NFL history.

Offensive Player of the Year: Tyreek Hill

Hill is having the best season of his career in his first season in Miami. He is averaging 122 receiving yards per game and is on pace to be the first wide receiver to hit 2,000 yards in NFL history. He has been so dominant he should get MVP consideration, but Mahomes has him edged out for now.

Defensive Player of the Year: Micah Parsons

Have you seen Parsons play? He is one of the most unblockable players this era of football has seen. Matt Judon has a case for this award as well, but Parsons brings a different level of juice off the edge.

Offensive Rookie of the Year: Kenneth Walker III

Walker has assumed the lead role as the Seahawks' bellcow running back following the injury of Rashaad Penny and has hit the ground running. Walker has rushed for at least 97 yards in three of his four starts and has scored a touchdown in four straight games. He has been a home run hit for the Seahawks and his emergence has given Seattle a dangerous, well-rounded offense.

Defensive Rookie of the Year: Sauce Gardner

Sauce Gardner has emerged as one of the few true shutdown cornerbacks in the NFL as a rookie. No matter the wide receiver, Gardner has been lockdown and truly changed the Jets’ defense. One elite cornerback can change an entire unit and the Jets have reaped the rewards of that.

Jon Gruden Dependent Award: Josh McDaniels

McDaniels is lucky that Mark Davis reportedly paid an undisclosed amount of settlement money to his previous head coach. Two admissions of fault in a calendar year seem unlikely from the stubborn Raiders owner. Las Vegas was built to win this season, but are much closer to having the top pick in the 2023 draft than it is to playoff contention. Being 2-6 with this collection of offensive talent isn’t good enough, but Davis is extremely unlikely to pay two coaches to not coach for him this year. So, McDaniels will get some more time to right the ship and getting the players to produce up to their talent level, all with involuntary help from Jon Gruden.

Relegation Award: Indianapolis Colts

The Colts claim to be an NFL team, but they just pulled off the real life equivalent of a Ted Lasso hire. Jeff Saturday has no experience coaching college or the NFL, and has only a few seasons under his belt at the high school coaching level. Now he’s the interim head coach for one of 32 NFL teams. That’s insane and, more accurately, it’s unserious. Perhaps Saturday will be a prodigy for the Colts and hit the ground running to be their long-term solution at head coach, but the process to get to this result makes no sense. There’s no logical reason to think that Saturday will be particularly good at his job. Going from ESPN airwaves to the head coach of an NFL team over the course of a few days is the decision making of a franchise that isn’t serious right now. The Colts should be relegated to the Big Ten until they decide to get with the times, and Ohio State can take their place in the AFC South.

Point Differential Underachievers of the Year Award: Jacksonville Jaguars

This year has been a different type of hell for the Jaguars and their fans. At the midway point of the season, the Jaguars are the only team in the AFC South with a positive point differential at +21. The Colts, who have effectively quit on 2022, sit half a game ahead of the Jaguars in the standings with a record of 3-5-1. The Jaguars are probably a better team than their record indicates, but at 3-6 it’s impossible to say they are a good team. Hopefully they can get some close game luck to go in their favor to close out the season so they can get a record that better indicates the quality of their team.