In 2020, under the old voting method in which people cast only one ballot, Derrick Henry’s 2,027-yard rushing campaign for a first-place Titans team garnered no MVP votes. Zero.
We don’t even need to pretend that a receiver, defensive player or – LOL – lineman has a snowball chance in Hades of ascending to the MVP scene.
The hilarious odds of even a running back ending a QB’s streak bring us to Kenneth Walker III.
The reigning Super Bowl MVP running back is on a hot streak in Kansas City.
Despite playing one fewer game (five) than most backs due to an early bye week, Walker leads the NFL with 665 rushing yards. He leads the NFL with 6.3 yards per attempt, and his 133 yards per game is on pace to surpass Dickerson’s single-season rushing record — in which the Hall of Famer averaged 131.6 YPG on 16 slants. (I should point out that Dickerson finished second in MVP voting that year after Dan Marino’s 5,000-yard passing campaign).
Walker passed for two touchdowns in the Chiefs’ Week 6 win over the Chargers, his fourth multi-touchdown game this season, joining Calvin Johnson Jr. (2011) as the only players since the 1970 merger to score multiple touchdowns in four of their first five games of a season.
Walker has been the best running back in the league, and as far as advanced metrics go, it’s not particularly close. According to Next Gen Stats, the beast KC generated 277 rushing yards above expectations, more than 100 ahead of the next closest player (Bijan Robinson at 170). His EPA of 13.2 is almost double that of No. 2 (Christian McCaffrey at 6.8). And its EPA per race of 0.12 is better than all competitors (CMC second at 0.09).
Walker’s ability to break tackles has been ridiculous. He generated 47 forced missed tackles, most in the league (according to NGS), and his 275 MTF yards are also highs.
Gn sports
