Ranking the last 10 AP MVP award-winning seasons from best to worst
By Daniel
By Mike Morbeck [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
10. Peyton Manning, 2008
The longtime quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts has won the AP MVP award a daunting five times (four with the Colts). His season in 2008 was good enough to capture the award, but not good enough to rank impressively on this list. Actually looking at the statistics from Manning’s 2008 season makes one wonder how he even won MVP. It is true that 2008 was definitely the ‘worst’ MVP season of his career — which is a hilarious thing to say.
Manning threw for just 27 touchdowns and 12 interceptions in 2008; those numbers don’t scream MVP, but they were good enough that year. His 4,002 passing yards and 66.8 completion percentage were impressive, but again, not nearly as great as many of his other season totals. He also ran for 21 yards, one touchdown, and had one fumble on the season.
Clearly Manning wasn’t as great in 2008 as he often was in his career–and he still won MVP–which shows how dominant he truly was. That said, Drew Brees, Philip Rivers, Kurt Warner, Adrian Peterson, Michael Turner, and DeAngelo Williams all probably feel that they deserved the award over Manning that year.
Next: A Player from the AFC South