My Ballot: NFL Awards

So, I'm not one of the media members that gets to vote on awards in any sports league, let alone the NFL. That doesn't mean I can pick my own award winners though, and that's what I intend to do. With some of the actual awards out, and the fact the NFL is culminating with Super Bowl week this week, I felt it an appropriate time to share my choices, my ballot if you will. First, congrats to the actual award winners, those are obviously more valid than this, but I can try...

NFL Most Valuable Player
QB Tom Brady - New England Patriots
Brady's easily the best player on his team. They have no major offensive standouts, except for Wes Welker, but he had a down year coming off of an injury. The Patriots offense was missing multiple RBs, lost Randy Moss mid season and did its best with Deion Branch and Welker as its top receivers. Despite all that Brady broke the record for most consecutive passes without an interception, and led his team to a 14-2 record. Brady also had the best QB rating in the league, 111.0. That's well ahead of 2nd place Philip Rivers.
NFC Choice: QB Michael Vick- Philadelphia Eagles

NFL Offensive Player of the Year
RB Arian Foster - Houston Texans
Foster was incredible in a breakout season. He ran for 1616 yards this season (best in the NFL), he caught for another 600. He also rushed for a league best 16 rushing TDs and caught another 2. No one came within 3 TDs or 148 yards of his totals. Half of his games led to 100 yards rushing, and he's the only RB in the league to average over 100 yards a game. He also ran for more 1st downs than anyone else in the league. Foster was truly an epitome of productivity this season.
NFC Choice: QB Michael Vick- Philadelphia Eagles

NFL Defensive Player of the Year
DB Kerry Rhodes- Arizona Cardinals
Admittedly, this is a strange pick. Its not the obvious pick or one that is probably going to get much consideration, but hear me out. Rhodes was a takeaway machine on a team that's defensive identity in recent years has been one of generating takeaways. He had 4 interceptions and 4 recovered fumbles on the season to go with 78 tackles. He also had a sack and found the end zone twice, turning defense into offense. I'm certain that Rhodes played that well, and if he had a better defense (or really, team) around him he'd stand out even more and his numbers would be even better.
AFC Choice: LB James Harrison - Pittsburgh Steelers

NFL Coach of the Year
Lovie Smith - Chicago Bears
Team progression is a true sign of good coaching, in my opinion, and the Bears progressed throughout the season all the way to a 2nd seed in the NFC. Good coaching was a great aid to the Bears' QB protection problems that were remedied greatly as the season went on. Smith's defense was also one of the best in the league as a unit. Coaching focus also led to Jay Cutler throwing the least amount of INTs he has since his first season starting. Chicago was also above average in terms of not committing penalties.
AFC Choice: Bill Belicheck - New England Patriots

NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year
QB Sam Bradford
Bradford easily had the best season of any offensive rookie. He threw for 3512 yards and had 18 TDs. He started every game for the Rams, led them to a much improved 7-9 record, and an almost playoff birth in the woefully bad NFC West. As a testament to the trust the Rams placed in Bradford, he threw the ball 590 times, only Peyton Manning and Drew Brees threw it more. The Rams clearly weren't handling Bradford with kid gloves, and he really stepped in and provided competent QB play.
AFC Choice: TE Jermaine Gresham - Cincinnati Bengals

NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year
DT Ndamukong Suh - Detroit Lions
At times, Suh looked dominant this season, on a revamped Lions defensive line that became much more formidable than in previous years. Suh had 10 sacks (one of 17 players in double digits, the only rookie) and an interception. His 66 tackles were amongst the top numbers for linemen. The Lions find themselves really getting the 2nd overall pick in the draft right, Suh could turn out to be the most dominant lineman in the game since Warren Sapp.
AFC Choice: CB Joe Haden - Cleveland Browns

NFL Comeback Player of the Year
QB Michael Vick - Philadelphia Eagles
What a story Vick is on and off the field. Only two years removed from being out of the league due to legal and personal issues, Vick was a significant MVP candidate. Some were concerned that he would never find his top speed and physical condition upon leaving jail or that he would work better coming back as a WR, those issues obviously aren't the case. Vick threw for over 3000 yards and ran for 676. He had a total of 30 TDs between running and passing and is the NFL's eminent double threat once again, its like he was never gone, except he's now playing for the Eagles. He led them to an NFC 3 seed, and a NFC East Championship.
AFC Choice: WR Wes Welker - New England Patriots

NFL Executive of the Year
GM Mark Dominik- Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Dominik was the architect of a Tampa Bay team that went from 3-13, to 10-6 and some would argue should have been in the playoffs (at least over the Seahawks). Dominik's plan seems to be moving into place as he hired coach Raheem Morris in 2009 (his own first season as well), and the Bucs have seen immediate progression in 2 years. Dominik also drafted WR Mike Williams in the 4th round in 2010, a true steal as Williams caught for 964 yards and 11 TDs. This is a young Tampa team that Dominik has built, and it looks like it could be good for a number of years.

What's the baseline?
Brady's MVP, Foster and Rhodes are the top players, Bradford and Suh are the top rookies, Lovie Smith is the top coach, Vick is the comeback player of the year, and Dominik was the best executive.