The selection of Jalen Hurts as Super Bowl LIX MVP was hardly a surprise in the wake of the Eagles 40-22 bludgeoning of the Chiefs on Sunday night. We’ve seen time and time again the quarterback pull in the hardware in these situations and not just because of the importance of the position.
As noted here plenty of times, the voting process is somewhat flawed, because it essentially asks for several volunteers from the media who are writing on deadline to quickly submit a vote for the Most Valuable Player in a game that’s currently ongoing or close to ending.
For games with a wild ending, it’s a really difficult task. And it’s why you often see defensive players win MVP in games that turn into one-sided affairs. Which is why it was a little surprising we didn’t get a defensive player winning the award after the Eagles completely shut down the Chiefs offense outside of garbage time, much of which featured the Eagles backups against the Chiefs starters.
Hurts was certainly a perfectly fine candidate, no question about it. He completed 17 of 22 passes for 221 yards and a pair of touchdowns, while running for another score. The other top MVP candidate, Saquon Barkley, was held in check by the Chiefs defense, and Hurts responded by stepping up in the passing game.
But as good as Hurts was in the game, you could easily argue the defense was more important to the Eagles success and one of the many defenders who stepped up could have received the votes.
And the public agrees. According to Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com, rookie cornerback Cooper DeJean actually received the most votes of any player on a public NFL.com poll during the game, which is worth 2.5 votes out of a possible 20 total votes.
Hurts finished second, receiving one vote, and defensive end Josh Sweat got a half vote for finishing third.
The remaining 16 votes are largely unaccounted for, although PFT’s…
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