NFL 2005 Awards

The NFL regular season is over, as a Packers fan I say thank god, so it's time to hand out some hardware to the best performers in the year that was 2005.

NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year: Cadillac Williams

No brainer here, it's Cadillac Williams. Nobody else really stood out this year. Samkon Gado came on late in the season and could have pushed Cadillac had he not gone down to a knee injury. Heath Miller and Ronnie Brown both had nice seasons, Troy Williamson surprised me, and Mark Clayton started to come on late, but nobody had enough to surpass Cadillac's amazing start to the season.


NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year: Shawne Merriman

In a two horse race, Shawne Merriman takes it over DeMarcus Ware. Ware looked good early and compiled 58 tackles and 8 sacks, but Merriman came on late and his 57 tackles and 10 sacks takes it.


NFL Offensive Player of the Year: Tiki Barber

A quick rundown of the candidates...

Shawn Alexander: 1880 rushing yards 27 tds
Tiki Barber: 2400 totals yards 11 tds
Steve Smith: 103 receptions 1563 yards 12 tds
Larry Johnson: 2093 total yards 21 tds
Carson Palmer: 3832 passing yards 67.8 comp % 32/12 td/int 101.1 QB rating

It was quite a year by the running backs, not included on this list were stellar performances form Clinton Portis, Edgerrin James and LaDanian Tomlinson and not to mention a rebirth from Santana Moss. That being said, the hands down unanamous winner is Mr. Offense, Tiki Barber. Barber carried the Giants and gave young Eli Manning a saftey valve to rely on throughout the season.


NFL Defensive Player of the Year: Brian Urlacher

Urlacher lead the NFL's best defense, Umenyiora has a sweet name and has come on as a dominant pass rusher, O'Neal lead the NFL's best ball hawking defense in interceptions, Peterson is arguably the best defender on one of the NFL's best defenses and Burgess lead the NFL in sacks. It was a close call, but Urlacher is the straw that stirs the drink on the NFL's best unit, yes unit not best defense, best unit.

Brian Urlacher: 121 tackles 6 sacks
Osi Umenyiora: 70 tackles 14.5 sacks
Deltha O'Neal: 65 tackles 10 interceptions
Mike Peterson: 131 takles 6 sacks 3 interceptions
Derek Burgess: 51 tackles 16 sacks


NFL Coach of the Year: Mike Shanahan

Mike Shanahan: AFC West Champs 13-3
Lovi Smith: NFC North Champs 11-5
Marvin Lewis: AFC North Champs 11-5
Nick Saban: 2nd in AFC East 9-7
Tony Dungy: AFC South Champs 14-2

Shanahan lead a Broncos team that looked as if it had taken a major step back to a division title going away. He won with a completely new defensive line, a running back by comittee and Jake the Snake Plummer. Most impressive was the coaching job done on Plummer who did his best to make you forget he was the same Jake Plummer of the Cardinals.

Saban did an impressive job by winning 9 games with an average-to-bad team, and Lewis and Smith both did a nice job of building up perennial cellar dwellers into division champs

Dungy too did a great job leading the Colts to a 13-0 start. I could go either way here between Dungy and Shannahan, but I think the job Shannahan did with that team rebuilt was just a bit more impressive.


NFL MVP: Shaun Alexander

Here's my criteria for MVP voting. Take the guy you're debating and replace him with a good player. So for example, replace Alexander with Gaddis' favorite Rudy Johson. Do the Seahawks win 13 games? I don't think so. Now put Alexander in Johnson's place on Cincinnati, do the Bengals win more than 11 games? Absolutely. Going off that logic, Alexander was the most valuable guy to his team this year in my eyes.

Voting

1. Shaun Alexander
2. Tiki Barber
3. Tom Brady
4. Brian Urlacher
5. Carson Palmer