nfl defensive mvp?

[Jules22]

are you serious? ed reed had 80 tackles, 9 picks, 3 forced fumbles and 350 return yards, was the lynchpin for that years best defensive unit and was a terror on special teams. i garnered this knowledge from watching football highlight shows, but i mean it was overwhelming obvious he was the best player on that side of the ball that year. quit being silly.

[Jack of Arcades]

actually, the best defense last year was buffalo, but who's keeping track?

[VarlosZ]

[ QUOTE ]
are you serious? ed reed had 80 tackles, 9 picks, 3 forced fumbles and 350 return yards, was the lynchpin for that years best defensive unit and was a terror on special teams. i garnered this knowledge from watching football highlight shows, but i mean it was overwhelming obvious he was the best player on that side of the ball that year. quit being silly.

[/ QUOTE ]

The only thing that was overwhelmingly obvious was that he had the snazziest looking stats (which never tell the whole story) and the most big plays (which are distributed somewhat randomly).

How many of those turnovers were due mostly to bad play from the offense rather than good play from Reed? How many of those return yards were due to having a ton of open field in front of him? How often did Reed blow an assignment, or miss a tackle? I don't know the answers to these questions, and neither do you. And neither, I would wager, did any of the voters from the AP.

Don't get me wrong: I think Ed Reed is an excellent player, and if I'd had a vote last year he would have gotten it, because he was the best defensive player in the league according to the available information. I just think the information that's generally available is inadequate.