Awards and superlatives for the primary half of the NFL season

Let’s assessment the primary half of the season and hand out some awards:

▪ MVP: Jalen Hurts, QB, Eagles.

Honorable point out: Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Tyreek Hill, Geno Smith, Derrick Henry, Tua Tagovailoa.

There may be loads of credit score to go round for the Eagles’ 8-0 begin, but it surely begins with Hurts, who has made exceptional enchancment in his third season. Hurts has 326 speeding yards and 6 touchdowns however now he’s a elegant passer. Hurts has 12 touchdowns towards two interceptions, a completion proportion that has jumped 7 factors to 68.2, and he’s No. 2 within the league in yards per try (8.54) and passer score (107.8). The Eagles love Hurts’s management, and he has them on the right track for large issues.

▪ Defensive Participant: Matthew Judon, LB, Patriots.

Honorable point out: Micah Parsons, Roquan Smith, Tariq Woolen, Quinnen Williams, Uchenna Nwosu, Nick Bosa, Sauce Gardner, Haason Reddick.

Judon’s 11½ sacks lead the NFL by three and are one off his profession excessive. His 19 quarterback hits are second within the NFL behind Bosa (20). His 10 tackles for loss are tied for fourth, and Judon has added a pressured fumble and three passes defended.

▪ Coach: Brian Daboll, Giants.

Honorable point out: Kevin O’Connell, Pete Carroll, Mike Vrabel, Robert Saleh, Mike McDaniel, Nick Sirianni.

A number of terrific selections, however nobody predicted that the Giants, the worst workforce within the NFL during the last 5 years, could be 6-2 coming off their bye. Daboll has achieved a formidable job getting essentially the most out of Daniel Jones. The Giants are additionally No. 4 within the NFL in level differential within the fourth quarter (plus-25) and second half (plus-31). That’s a workforce that makes changes at halftime and performs for 60 minutes.

▪ Govt: Howie Roseman, GM, Eagles.

Honorable point out: Seahawks GM John Schneider, Payments GM Brandon Beane, Dolphins GM Chris Grier.

Simply two years in the past, the Eagles have been 4-11-1. Now with a brand new coach and roster overhaul, the Eagles are 8-0 with the No. 2 scoring offense and No. 4 scoring protection. Roseman has had fairly a run of success: Sticking with Hurts as an alternative of getting in on Deshaun Watson, buying and selling for A.J. Brown, and hitting house runs in security C.J. Gardner-Johnson, cornerback James Bradbury, and Reddick. The Eagles even have two first-round picks subsequent yr.

▪ Rookie: Tariq Woolen, CB, Seahawks.

Honorable point out: Sauce Gardner, Chris Olave, Kenneth Walker, Dameon Pierce, Garrett Wilson, Jack Jones, Devin Lloyd.

A 6-foot-4-inch nook, Woolen was only a fifth-round select of Texas-San Antonio, however he has began all 9 video games and is second within the NFL with 4 interceptions, together with a pick-6.

▪ Finest offseason acquisition: Tyreek Hill, WR, Dolphins.

Honorable point out: A.J. Brown, Christian Kirk, Haason Reddick, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Davante Adams, Von Miller, Za’Darius Smith.

Hill value the Dolphins first- and second-round picks and a $120 million extension, however he has been pretty much as good as marketed. Hill’s 1,104 receiving yards are 237 greater than anybody else, his 10 catches of 25-plus yards rank No. 2 (behind teammate Jaylen Waddle with 11), and he’s on tempo for the primary 2,000-yard receiving season in NFL historical past (2,085 yards).

▪ Worst offseason acquisition: Allen Robinson, WR, Rams.

Honorable point out: J.C. Jackson, Matt Ryan, Carson Wentz, Russell Wilson.

Signed to a three-year, $45 million contract to exchange Odell Beckham and Robert Woods, Robinson has simply 25 catches for 248 yards and two touchdowns for the 3-5 Rams. Zebra Applied sciences, which powers NFL Subsequent Gen Stats, says that Robinson isn’t getting open. He’s tied for the sixth-least cushion and fifth-lowest separation of all NFL receivers.

▪ Finest offseason determination: 49ers holding Jimmy Garoppolo.

The 49ers are 4-4 and sitting within the No. 7 playoff spot within the NFC, however they’re trending upward with the addition of Christian McCaffrey. Their season could be misplaced in the event that they hadn’t stored Garoppolo on the finish of coaching camp. Trey Lance’s ankle harm was powerful to take, however the 49ers are arguably greater Tremendous Bowl threats with Garoppolo.

▪ Greatest shock: Geno Smith, QB, Seahawks.

Honorable point out: Tua Tagovailoa, Jalen Hurts.

Smith is likely one of the most unbelievable tales in latest NFL historical past — successful his first beginning job in seven years and enjoying like a unique quarterback from the one who struggled as a teenager with the Jets. Smith leads the NFL with a 73.1 completion proportion, has 15 touchdowns towards 4 interceptions, and is an MVP candidate for the 6-3 Seahawks.

▪ Greatest disappointment: Russell Wilson, QB, Broncos.

Honorable point out: Trevor Lawrence, Mac Jones, Derek Carr, Kyler Murray, Aaron Rodgers, Matthew Stafford.

A surprising drop-off in statistics and manufacturing for Wilson, who ranks outdoors the highest 25 in passer score (83.5), completion proportion (58.8), and touchdowns (six), whereas the Broncos rank thirty second in red-zone touchdowns (35 %). Wilson is wanting extra like a creation of Pete Carroll and the Seahawks than a real famous person.

▪ Most enjoyable workforce: Dolphins.

Honorable point out: Chiefs, Payments, Eagles, Ravens.

McDaniel’s offense is a pinball machine when Tagovailoa, Hill, and Waddle are wholesome. The Dolphins are 6-0 in video games Tagovailoa has completed, averaging 27.5 factors. They’re tied with the Chiefs for essentially the most passes of at the very least 20 yards (36), and Hill and Waddle are first and fifth within the NFL in receiving yards, combining for 1,916. The Dolphins had a 21-point fourth-quarter comeback win over the Ravens, and a 14-point comeback win over the Lions.

▪ Most disappointing workforce: Packers.

Honorable point out: Broncos, Raiders, Rams, Colts, Buccaneers, Cardinals.

The three-5 Broncos are painfully dysfunctional underneath Wilson and new coach Nathaniel Hackett. However it’s laborious to high the surprising first half of Rodgers and the Packers, who’re 3-6 and ranked twenty seventh in factors. Rodgers has received 13 video games three straight years and was MVP the final two. Now he’s shedding to the Jets, Commanders, and Lions.

▪ Staff nobody needs to face within the second half: Cowboys.

Honorable point out: 49ers, Bengals, Titans, Dolphins.

The 6-2 Cowboys have a terrific protection (No. 3 in factors allowed) and a whole lot of expertise on offense that helped them go 4-1 in Dak Prescott’s absence. Now Prescott is again and entering into the stream of issues once more. Be careful for the Cowboys.

CARRY ON

Groups are seeing features on floor

A few different nuggets on the season:

▪ Groups have by no means been higher at working the soccer, with the league averaging 4.54 yards per carry, the most effective in league historical past by way of 9 weeks and considerably higher than in every other season within the Tremendous Bowl period (second-best is 4.35 in 2020). However leaguewide scoring remains to be down 3 factors from final yr and seven factors from 2020. Passing the ball, not working the ball, results in factors.

▪ The dearth of scoring perhaps has to do with an absence of penalties? This season has seen 1,700 fewer penalty yards than at this level final yr, 3,000 fewer than in 2019, and a pair of,000 fewer than in 2018. However there have been virtually the identical penalty yards referred to as this yr as in 2020, the highest-scoring season ever.

▪ Per information from NFLPenalties.com, false begin penalties are up 19 % from 2020 however static from final yr. Offensive holding is about the identical. Defensive holding is up 40 % from final season, however defensive go interference is down 17 %. Pointless roughness has been static for the final three years, however roughing the passer is surprisingly down about 31 % from final yr.

ETC.

Carroll and Wilson airing grievances

When Tom Brady and Invoice Belichick have been squabbling behind the scenes of their ultimate years collectively in New England, they at the very least remained civil in public and stored most of their true ideas to themselves, leaving the remainder of us to fill within the gaps. However Pete Carroll and Russell Wilson aren’t making an attempt to cover that there was pressure of their ultimate years collectively in Seattle.

Carroll inspired Seahawks followers to boo Wilson loudly earlier than the sport towards the Broncos in Week 1. And after the win, as an alternative of resorting to the standard clichés, Carroll acknowledged that it was “actually rewarding” to beat his former quarterback.

Now final week, Carroll took an unprovoked shot at Wilson throughout his weekly radio present when praising Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith.

“When you discover, Geno’s going off the wristband, and that’s a giant assist,” Carroll mentioned. “We by no means did that earlier than. There was resistance to that, so we didn’t try this earlier than.”

The one who would have resisted the wristband, in fact, could be Wilson, who was Carroll’s quarterback from 2012-21. Wilson shot again on Wednesday that the Seahawks made the playoffs in eight of his 10 seasons and reached two Tremendous Bowls, with one win.

“Gained a whole lot of video games there with out one on the wrist,” Wilson mentioned from Denver. “I didn’t know successful or shedding mattered in case you put a wristband on or not. However I feel you do what it takes to verify we’re rolling and transferring and the whole lot else. A number of instances I’ve undoubtedly worn a wristband with the sport plan and what now we have referred to as.”

Grass vs. artificial turf

Packers linebacker De’Vondre Campbell was the newest participant to name for the NFL to ditch artificial turf surfaces and set up pure grass in all 30 stadiums. Campbell and the Packers misplaced linebacker Rashan Gary to a torn ACL final week. At the moment, half of NFL stadiums have pure grass and half have artificial.

“That is two weeks in a row we’ve had gamers get injured on turf fields,” Campbell tweeted. “The turf is actually like concrete, it has no give whenever you plant.”

Besides the NFL argues that the distinction in accidents between pure and artificial surfaces has grow to be negligible. Citing harm information tracked from a third-party firm contracted by the NFL and the Gamers Affiliation, the NFL believes that artificial surfaces have grow to be, typically, simply as protected as pure grass. The information associated to lower-extremity accidents to the knee, ankle, and foot.

“What we’ve seen over the previous few years is a narrowing of the distinction in accidents that may be attributed to the floor between artificial and pure grass, to the purpose the place in 2021 there wasn’t a statistically significant distinction between the speed of harm,” NFL senior vice chairman Jeff Miller mentioned. “This preseason in 2022 we didn’t see any significant distinction within the charge of accidents. And so I feel the query we’re eager about with the PA and the consultants is easy methods to drive down the harm charges in each locations.”

Whereas pure grass definitely has extra “give” than most artificial surfaces, loads of noncontact accidents nonetheless occur on grass. And as followers in Pittsburgh, Washington, and different cold-weather cities know, grass surfaces don’t all the time develop properly late within the season.

“That discipline is horrible,” former Jaguars working again Fred Taylor mentioned of Heinz Area in 2008. “Possibly they need to attempt to spend money on FieldTurf subsequent yr or sooner or later.”

In case you had any doubt that the Commanders are nonetheless loathsome, the workforce responded Thursday evening to an announcement from the D.C. legal professional common by referencing the August taking pictures of working again Brian Robinson. The Commanders attacked the AG for searching for “splashy headlines, primarily based on offbeat authorized theories, reasonably than doing the laborious work of constructing the streets protected for our residents.” Staff president Jason Wright later apologized (by no means thoughts the truth that D.C. police have made arrests within the taking pictures), however the Commanders nonetheless clearly haven’t realized something. That complete group must be worn out … Plainly the Texans and receiver Brandin Cooks are mending fences. Cooks was upset final week when he wasn’t moved on the commerce deadline, tweeting, “Don’t take a person’s kindness without any consideration. Lined for the lies for too lengthy, these days are achieved. Crossed the road with enjoying with my profession.” The issue was possible the contract Cooks signed in April that ensures him $18 million subsequent yr. Cooks was made inactive for the Nov. 3 recreation towards the Eagles, and was changed by Laremy Tunsil as a recreation captain. Cooks has been again on the Texans’ facility since final Friday, however let’s see if he will get his captaincy again for Sunday’s recreation towards the Giants … Hope NFL homeowners, significantly the one in Carolina, are noticing that interim coach Steve Wilks is 2-3 with the Panthers after they benched their quarterback and traded Christian McCaffrey … Nothing goes proper for Josh McDaniels and the Raiders, who put Darren Waller (hamstring) and Hunter Renfrow (indirect) on injured reserve on Thursday. The trio of Waller, Renfrow, and Davante Adams have been on the sector collectively for simply 62 snaps all season, per The Athletic … Brady threw an interception in Week 1, and since has thrown 373 passes with out one. The NFL file is 402 passes with out an INT, set by Aaron Rodgers in 2018 … Do you know: Brady is throwing the ball much more this yr than he did final yr, when he set a private file with 719 go makes an attempt, the second-most in NFL historical past? Brady, at age 45, is on tempo for 751 passes, which might break Matthew Stafford’s NFL file of 727 … Payments quarterback Josh Allen hasn’t missed a recreation since his rookie season of 2018, when he sat out 4 video games due to an harm to his throwing elbow, the identical harm he’s coping with now. The Payments play the Patriots in 2½ weeks on a Thursday evening … The Patriots already honored Richard Seymour this yr for his induction into the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame. Now this Sunday, the Raiders invited Seymour to gentle the Al Davis Memorial Torch earlier than their recreation towards the Colts. Seymour spent his final 4 seasons with the Raiders, and naturally their coach is McDaniels … Per Zebra Applied sciences, seven of Patrick Mahomes’s 20 interceptions because the begin of 2021 have hit off his receivers’ arms … Per a number of stories, the Panthers turned down a 2023 second-round choose, and first-rounders in 2024 and 2025, for go rusher Brian Burns. They need to have taken that deal with out considering twice … Seahawks linebacker Josh Onujiogu, a Wareham native and undrafted rookie out of Division 3 Framingham State, was bumped up from the observe squad final week and made his NFL debut, enjoying 11 defensive snaps, six particular groups snaps, and ending with three tackles within the win over the Cardinals.

Ben Volin could be reached at ben.volin@globe.com.