NFL Honors and Awards Show: MVP, Coach of the Year to be named

The Associated Press, in conjunction with the NFL, will host its now annual awards show Saturday night giving out the awards for MVP, Offensive Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Offensive and Defensive Rookies of the Year, Coach of the Year and probably a few others I'm forgetting or don't care about.

Odds are very low any Steelers player will be given one of these awards.

That being said, the debate will really come down to the MVP, with conventional wisdom suggesting it's between Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning and Vikings running back Adrian Peterson.

The loser of that is usually given the seemingly tokenish Offensive Player of the Year. Since there's no way Peterson is losing the Offensive Player of the Year award, we'll pick Manning for MVP.

Ironic, a league that over-glorifies post-season success has given its most valuable player award to a player who's set new standards on disappointing playoff performances in his career.

Anyway...

Defensive Player of the Year: Houston's J.J. Watt. A true two-gap defensive end, he has received all the credit for the new fad you're hearing about in all draft circles; the concept of defensive players batting passes at the line of scrimmage. Whenever you hear a writer glowingly praise a defensive player for having long arms before this draft, think of J.J. Watt.

Coach of the Year: Indianapolis's Bruce Arians. I'm sorry for being insensitive, but since we already know we're going to hear Arians name right after Chuck Pagano's, followed by the requisite "I Can't Look Bad By Giving A Standing Ovation" standing ovation, we may as well dive into this. Chuck Pagano is an incredibly courageous and inspiring human being. I wish him nothing but the best.

He did not coach this team this year. Arians did. We'll never know what would have happened if Pagano coached. It didn't happen, that's why. Arians is the Coach of the Year.

Offensive Rookie of the Year: Robert Griffin III. Before the Russell Wilson faction freaks out over this, let's keep in mind the votes are tabulated before the playoffs. And no, they should not be voted on after the playoffs.

Griffin did more with little around him. The Redskins couldn't even sniff the level of defense Seattle had, and if you want to get into the postseason, then I think it shows even more of an example of why Griffin did more for his team.

Defensive Rookie of the Year: Luke Kuechly, Carolina Panthers. Pretty much a no-brainer. He'll develop more playmaking skills, which is scary considering he had pretty much all of Carolina's tackles in 2012. He belongs and he'll be the best Mike LB in the game very soon.

Any thoughts? Comments? Beers to be c