SB Nation NFL Mid-Season Awards

by BigBlueShoe on Nov 8, 2006 2:56 PM EST in Analysis

Forget this clunky thing. It's all about the Mid-Season Awards, Baby!
Photo: Wikipedia.org

Just in time for Election Season, the football writers at SB Nation were polled on their picks for the best and worst players, coaches, and teams at the midway point of the 2006 NFL season. Surprisingly, several races were blowouts, except for "Worst Coach" at the midway point, which ended up as a tie. Somehow, I doubt the "winners" of this category will ask for a re-count. For many, it's not surprising that the Rookie of the Midway Point plays for New Orleans. The surprising part is it's certainly not Reggie Bush. Bush did get a rookie award, but not the kind many at ESPN were expecting.

So, without further ado, here are the SB Nation NFL Mid-Season Awards:

The Studs:

NFL MVP: Peyton Manning, QB Colts

Offensive Player: Peyton Manning, QB Colts

Defensive Player: Champ Bailey, CB Broncos

Coach: Sean Payton, Saints

Rookie: Marques Colston, WR Saints

The Duds:

Worst Player: Ben Roethlisberger, QB Steelers (Edgerrin James, RB Cardinals, pulled in a very close second)

Worst Coach: Tie between Dennis Green (Arizona Cardinals) and Nick Saban (Miami Dolphins)

Worst Rookie: Reggie Bush, RB Saints. Somewhere, Stewart Scott at ESPN is crying.

Some funny nuggets from the SB Nation writers as they turned in their ballots:

From WCG:

Biggest Thrill that they are so Bad: Redskins, so much money, so little wins.

I'm sure Skin Patrol appreciates that.

From saint:

Worst Coach: Saban... With a shout out to Tom Walsh!!!

Walsh is the offensive coordinator for the Oakland Raiders, the team saint blogs for. Oakland was shut out again on Monday Night Football this week. As you can see, saint is a little upset.

Though not a category, the best write-in stuff game from Gonzo at Daily Norseman:

Best Defensive Player: I'm going to throw in a write-in for Pat Williams here. Yes, he's awesome. Yes, I'm a homer. No, I don't care.

Worst Player: Another write-in vote for a guy from my team... Troy Williamson... kid couldn't catch gonorrhea in a Vietnamese whorehouse.

Worst Rookie: Reggie Bush... and I wasted a second-round fantasy pick on the guy.

That concludes the 2006 Mid-Season awards. We'll do a 2006 Season Awards when the regular season concludes.

0 recs | Comment 9 comments

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Comments

Re: so much money spent

We're all operating under the same salary cap.

by Skin Patrol on Nov 8, 2006 3:44 PM EST 0 recs

cap

but not the same cap when it comes to how much up front bonus money can be given. I don't know the specifics, but I do know that teams with deeper pockets can do more with bonuses than a team like the Colts.

Steve Holt!!

by jdb on Nov 9, 2006 11:18 AM EST 0 recs

bonus and cap

only a percentage of a 'signing bonus' counts against your cap numbers (i think it is around 10% but really not sure). for this reason, players often renegotiate to move salary to bonus or big signing bonuses are paid. these bonuses can also be spread out over more than one season, so the hit is spread.

all kinds of games that go on, but it does mean that an owner with deep pockets who wants to try and buy a superbowl can spend more .. but there are still limits.

by bluegirl on Nov 9, 2006 8:50 PM EST 0 recs

Not true

100% of signing bonus counts against the cap. If a team offers a 10 million dollar signing bonus on a 5 year contract, the bonus is prorated over the years at 2 mil of cap a year.

There are limits to how high a percentage of a players total salary can be in signing bonus, thanks to Jerry Jones and Deion Sanders. But 100% of it counts against the cap.

by Skin Patrol on Nov 10, 2006 12:03 PM EST up 0 recs

As an aside

higher signing bonuses are necessary to protect the players. The old strategy was for teams to offer contracts where the annual salary increased sharply (they still do this, but the increase is significantly lower because of a 30% rule instigated to prevent any annual increase of more than 30% of total salary). Ex: Player X signs a 5 year 10 million dollar contract.
Year 1: 1 mil
Year 2: 1 mil + change
Year 3: 1 mil + change
Year 4: 1 mil + change
Year 5: around 6 million

The team could then just cut the player outright in Year 4 and avoid having to pay them the 6 million at all, thus cheating the player of money and the team gets a 10 mil dollar player for 4 mil for 4 years.

Signing bonuses are ensured money, so if this player signed 5 mil contract with a 5 mil signing bonus, even if the team cut him in year 5 he would still receiver 1 million AND it would count against the team's salary cap - with or without the player on the roster.

by Skin Patrol on Nov 10, 2006 12:10 PM EST up 0 recs