The hardware won’t be handed out until December, but the road to the award is already underway. Actually, this road began shortly after last year’s ended.

Thankfully, however, there are games, performances and players to discuss. And while some familiar faces put up big numbers as anticipated, a few others burst onto the scene with some massive Week 1 showings.

There’s a long way to go, but we learned plenty about those that will contended for that giant hunk of bronze over the next few months.