49ers Nick Bosa needs to be an MVP Candidate
In the long and rich history of the NFL, there have only been two defensive players ever to win the NFL MVP, Alan Page for the Minnesota Vikings in 1971 and Lawrence Taylor for the New York Giants in 1986. In a league dominated by offense and star quarterbacks, people should be hesitant to scoff at the notion that a defensive player should be considered for the NFL MVP award.
49ers Nick Bosa is gaining traction in the NFL MVP conversation. According to Peter King of Pro Football Talk and Football Morning in America, Bosa is now in the top five for the NFL MVP. It’s interesting that four out of the top five NFL MVP candidates are all starting quarterbacks, Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts, and Joe Burrow, and the fifth is a defensive end who is a game wrecker in Bosa.
The evolution of the NFL favors the offensive and the quarterback. Fans want to see and pay for scoring. Still, it’s astonishing that in an era of Air raid offenses and scoring points in bunches, a defensive end has the same impact or more on their team than many quarterbacks and offensive skill positions around the league.
One of the four quarterbacks stated above, Mahomes, Allen, Hurts, or Burrow, will probably win the NFL regular season MVP, with Mahomes leading the way, but 49ers Nick Bosa needs to be considered for the NFL MVP award.
Looking back at the two players who won the NFL MVP as defensive players, Page & Taylor, 49ers Nick Bosa has had a similar impact for San Francisco that Page had for the Vikings and Taylor had for the Giants. 49ers Nick Bosa is the best player on the best defense in football. Although the 49ers’ defense is not historically dominant, from subpar performances against the Kansas City Chiefs and the Las Vegas Raiders earlier in the season, Bosa is performing at a historically efficient level.
49ers Nick Bosa added another sack to his league-leading sack total, 18.5 sacks, against the Arizona Cardinals, who are on the brink of firing their head coach Kliff Kingsbury after Sunday’s loss to the 49ers. Bosa did not need to play the entire game because of resting for the playoffs. Still, he extended his league-leading sack total, solidifying himself as the defensive player of the year and adding to his case for the NFL MVP.
Although a defensive player may never win the NFL’s highest individual honor again, 49ers’ Nick Bosa needs to be considered for the NFL MVP award based on his overall impact on his team, his historically great regular season stats, and his influence on the field tormenting opposing offenses and quarterbacks around the NFL.
