2011 NFL MVP: Aaron Rodgers Deserves Top Honor over Drew Brees

There's a chance Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees could share the MVP award this season for the third time in NFL history.

But if you have to pick one man, it should be Rodgers.

Let's first review Brees' case.

Brees set the NFL record for passing yards in a season in 2011, racking up 5,476 yards through the air. He also set the NFL record for completion percentage over the course of a season, completing 71.2 percent of his passes on 657 attempts. He also passed for 46 touchdowns to 14 interceptions. And he did this with a worse overall receiving corps than Rodgers.

As for Rodgers, he completed 68.3 percent of his passes for 4,643 yards and 45 touchdowns to just six interceptions. He also averaged 9.2 yards per attempt compared to Brees' 8.3 yards per pass.

On top of this, he had a much worse running situation than Brees had with the Saints. Saints running backs Darren Sproles, Mark Ingram and Pierre Thomas provided a dynamic rushing attack that averaged 4.9 yards per carry, tied for fourth in the NFL. This inevitably made opponents have to pay attention to the run. In Rodgers' case, opponents knew he was going to throw and still couldn't do anything about it.

For me, what really separates Rodgers from Brees this season is the amount of turnovers and his lack of a balanced offense. Brees threw multiple interceptions in key moments of the Saints losses to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and St. Louis Rams. Rodgers didn't throw multiple interceptions in any game this season.

I also think you can throw the argument of the team's record in here, too. While record isn't normally a good way to compare two individuals, given it's a team sport, Rodgers' involvement in an offense that wasn't threatening on the ground means he had an even bigger part in the Packers victories than Brees had with the Saints.

Again, both players are certainly deserving of the award, and I wouldn't complain if Brees won, but Rodgers should win the 2011 NFL MVP.