Philip Rivers Should Have Been Awarded AFC Offensive Player of the Year

Recently Peyton Manning was awarded the AFC Offensive Player of the Year. Although he had a great season he didn’t deserve to be given the award. Philip Rivers deserved it.

I am not a San Diego Chargers fan and quite frankly I don’t like Rivers’ attitude. However, he has been done an injustice. He had a better offensive season than Manning did.

All the excuses that you can make for Manning not having a good defense and run support you can make for Philip Rivers as well.

Here are the stats of both players:

Philip Rivers: 312/478 (65.3 percent) 4,009 yards, 34 TD, 11 INT

Peyton Manning: 371/555 (66.8 percent) 4,002 yards 27 TD, 12 INT

Manning had 77 more pass attempts yet couldn’t throw for more yards and touchdowns. Manning has the slight edge in completion percentage, but he had more attempts.

You could make the argument that Manning had no running game. The same thing could be said for Rivers. You could say that Manning’s defense was terrible, but the same could be said for Rivers.

Rivers was sacked 25 times this year. Manning, on the other hand, was sacked 14 times.

An argument could be made that Manning has a faster release, but Rivers also has a fast release. Manning was given a lot of protection and had time to throw the ball. Rivers had a passer rating of 105.5 while Manning’s was 95.0.

You could argue that Manning’s team had a better record but the award is for Offensive Player of the Year—your team's record has nothing to do with it.

Rivers had a better offensive year than Manning had, yet Manning won the award. This just proves that NFL awards are a popularity contest. The person that’s more popular among the writers that vote is going to win.

This wasn’t meant to say that Manning didn’t have a good season, because he did. However, Rivers had a better season and should have won the award.

He was done an injustice by not being named to the Pro Bowl and was done an injustice by not winning the AFC Offensive Player of the Year.