2016 was a strange season

[Rupert Patrick]

DPOY winners from each of the last 4 seasons missed a material chunk on time.

It feels like other than QB there were few standout performers across the league, Elliott and Johnson'said rushing seasons don't stand out historically, Antonio Brownot, Beckham, etc were quite what they were in the past few years. With the exception of passing yards leader Brees and passers-by rating leader Ryan, few historically good performances. Marshall Yanda may be the most impressive performer I watched aside from Ryan, Brady and late-season Rodgers (even Brees didn't impress the eye the way he used to).

As far as players missing a material chunk of time, I think Le'Veon Bell probably would have won MVP had he not missed the first four weeks of the season. When the Steelers recovered from their four-game losing streak in the middle of the season to win six in a row in order to clinch the AFC North (he sat out Week 17 and the Steelers won that also), Bell rushed for over 100 yards in five of those six games and rushed for 93 yards in the sixth game. One of those games was the Buffalo game when he rushed for 236 yards. Despite missing five games, Bell still finished fifth in the league in rushing and third in all-purpose yards. Pittsburgh have had a lot of great running backs over the past 25 years, many who had short but sweet careers (Willie Parker, Barry Foster, Bam Morris) and then Bettis who stayed around a long time and probably wasn't as good as a lot of people thought he was but was still pretty good. But I think Le'Veon Bell is the best running back the Steelers have had since Franco Harris, and if he can stay healthy, I think he might even be better than Franco.

[JWL]

Adrian Peterson's 2016 stats will go down as among the worst single season stats for a Hall of Famer:
37 rushing attempts for 72 yards
3 receptions for 8 yards

Sure, he only played in three games due to injury but his yardage per touch numbers were dismal.

[Rupert Patrick]

Adrian Peterson's 2016 stats will go down as among the worst single season stats for a Hall of Famer:
37 rushing attempts for 72 yards
3 receptions for 8 yards

Sure, he only played in three games due to injury but his yardage per touch numbers were dismal.

Three years ago it seemed Peterson was destined to be the greatest RB since Sanders and certainly top ten all time, but since he's pretty much lost two entire seasons, and one has to wonder if he'll even stay in Minnesota next season or just hang it up.