MVP: Jordan Love- 4,159 yds, 36 TTDs, 11 Ints, 96.1 Rating
Without a doubt in my mind, Jordan Love is the MVP for us this season. He never gave up on the team or himself when things got real scary, and he was on fire the last 8 weeks or so. I had full confidence in him throughout the whole season, and believed that a lot of the early struggles were due to LaFleur not opening up the offense more. That turned out to be dead on, as once there was enough trust to open up the play book, Love started cooking. He led the youngest offense in the NFL to the playoffs in his first year starting. Aaron Rodgers couldn’t even make the playoffs with a much better roster in his first year. Overall, Love shocked the world with how well he played this year, and is by far the most deserving for the MVP award for Green Bay.
OPOY: Jayden Reed- 912 YScm, 10 TTDs, 2 Fumbles
Jayden Reed has been nothing but electric for our offense this year. He genuinely came out of nowhere, especially because he is the polar opposite of wide receivers that the Packers typically take. I gave the pick a B-, but man I wish I could switch it to an A+. I only saw that he was projected way later than where we took him and thought it was a horrible pick. I couldn’t have been any more wrong about Reed. He’s exactly what this team needed offensively due to his versatility. People compared him to Randall Cobb heading into the year, but I could see him eclipsing that and turning into a Tyreek Hill type player. Reed had a phenomenal and underrated year, and I can’t wait to see how much further he takes his game in the years to come.
DPOY: Kenny Clark- 44 Tkls (22 solo), 7.5 Sacks, 36 Pressures, 2 FF
Our defensive line this year has drastically improved compared to years prior. A great example of this is Kenny Clark having a career year in sacks and pressures. Clark is a long time vet for Green Bay, being drafted in 2016, and has been an extremely important anchor for the defense. He’s been nothing short of amazing this year, being able to really rush the passer and stop the run at an effective level. I never felt like he could put both together as he’d either be great in the run stopping and poor at pass rushing or vice versa, until this year. In nearly every game he had a handful of explosive plays on defense, absolutely blowing up the offense’s groove. His leadership and experience has definitely rubbed off on Devonte Wyatt, because he looked like a completely different player with leaps and bounds of improvement compared to last year. Hopefully Kenny Clark has many more years of this production under his belt and retires a Packer.
OROY: Dontayvion Wicks- 39 Receptions, 581 Yards, 4 TDs
Due to me not wanting to repeat players for this, It felt very fitting for Wicks to give him rookie of the year. He was one of the guys I had felt fit the Packers very well heading into the draft, and was ecstatic we grabbed him in the 5th round. His route running, jump ball ability, and run after catch reminded me of a rookie Davante due to his drop problem in college. Safe to say, that comparison was spot on. Wicks has looked nothing short of special every time he’s on the field. His ability to make defenders miss in the open field gives him such a dangerous edge when he’s healthy. This wide receiver room has the potential to be one of the best of all time, with how dangerous and deep it is.
DROY: Carrington Valentine/Lukas Van Ness
This was a particularly tricky award to give out because of how many studs we got in this draft class. Carrington Valentine was an easy pick due to how well he stepped up for the defense when they needed it most. Valentine had 9 passes defended, 47.1% completion percentage, 1 touchdown allowed, and a 73.1 passer rating allowed. For being a 7th round draft pick, that is a truly phenomenal statline. He feels like a mini-Jaire and even had a breakout game against the same team Jaire did when he was a rookie. The other recipient of defensive rookie of the year is Lukas Van Ness. I was not happy with drafting him because I desperately wanted JSN, but he has shown flashes of being great. He had 4 sacks, 18 pressures, 8 run stuffs, and 8 tackles for loss all on 391 snaps. He did all of that in a third of the total defensive snaps played this season. If that doesn’t show promise I don’t know what does. I’m extremely pleased with the production he’s shown in such a small sample size, and I have a feeling the Packers will have an elite pass rush duo with him and Gary for years to come.
Most Improved: Rasheed Walker/Zach Tom
Due to the excessive injury that David Bahktiari endured at the beginning of the year, Rasheed Walker was thrown into the fire week 2. He started off terrible, not being able to block for the run or pass and constantly getting penalties. I even believed he should never play another down as a Green Bay Packer. Walker ended up turning his season around, and being a force to be reckoned with as a left tackle. His stats show a terrible outing all year, but most of the negative plays happened much earlier in the year. I’m so impressed with how well he’s improved with this offense. Zach Tom on the other hand has been our only consistent offensive lineman all year due to injuries or being flat out terrible. Tom was always a bright spot all year, and went up against a gauntlet of pass rushers. He played 1068 snaps, and allowed 2 sacks and 3 penalties. For a guy that went against TJ Watt, Aiden Hutcinson, Micah Parsons, Montez Sweat, Khalil Mack, Danielle Hunter, Cam Jordan, and Brian Burns, I say those are pretty great stats in his second year of starting.
Breakout of the Year: Bo Melton- 16 Receptions, 218 Yards, 1 TD
The man, the myth, the legend, Bo Melton. I never expected that the first 100-yard receiver for this team this year was going to be Bo Melton. I honestly didn’t know who he was until the Panthers game when he was getting wide open play after play. His top end speed gives Watson a run for his money, and he’s shifty enough to slide into gaps of the defense to be wide open. New Years against the Vikings was the Melton Masterclass (trademark pending) with him totaling 6 receptions for 105 yards and a touchdown. As I remarked earlier, this wide receiver room is actually nuts talent wise. There truly isn’t another team that has this much depth and youth at the position. These guys are all going to grow together and make each other better, so the future for everyone in that room is extremely bright. It’s been a long time since the Packers have had multiple receivers to throw to, and the last time we did, we won the Super Bowl.
