Welcome to week three of the off-season where we argue whether Jared Goff or Sam Darnold should be MVP of the best (then the worst) division in the NFC. Let's see how many Packers I can cram into this. 

Coach of the Year

Kevin O'Connell won the award for the NFL so he has to win it for the NFC North right? Wrong. We stick with Matt LaFleur here. O'Connell had the Vikings rolling on offense at times but the Vikings record had a big ole pile of luck attached. 

While the Vikings had three more wins than the Packers, the Packers' point differential was actually 22 points higher than the Vikings (despite two weird losses to them). The Vikings had nine one-score (technically one possession) wins. Historically those games are a coin flip.

You can also argue that Kevin O'Connell turned Sam Darnold into an MVP of the NFC North candidate. But that's with two pro-bowl level receivers (one of whom was the best receiver in the league a year ago), Aaron Jones, pro bowl tackles, etc. Matt LaFleur won games with Malik Willis at QB after being on the team for like two weeks. 

Dan Campbell can be a candidate when he does all this without two head coaches as coordinators. 

Verdict: Matt LaFleur

Offensive Player of the Year

Justin Jefferson is probably the favorite for this award with Amon-Ra St. Brown close behind. But Jefferson had almost 300 fewer yards than he did two years ago, do we really want to reward regression? Is being the best at your position really enough here? And it can't be the sun god because he's on the Lions. 

Let's go with Josh Jacobs. Jacobs led the league in broken tackles and, along with Saquon Barkley and Derrick Henry, rewrote the rules on signing running backs to big free agent deals. He had 1,329 rush yards and 15 TDs on the ground. Sounds like player of the year material to me. 

Verdict: Josh Jacobs

Defensive Player of the Year

You'd probably have to go with Aidan Hutchinson here if he had played the whole season. Sadly, he broke his tibia so we're down to Xavier McKinney and Kerby Joseph. 

Joseph had one more pick. McKinney had five more tackles. Their PFF coverage grades were about the same. It has to come down to the fact that McKinney didn't attempt to injure anyone this year. 

It will definitely be interesting to watch Joseph, who went from a 56.5 total PFF grade in 2023 to a 90.4 in 2024 next season. Look at Cowboys corner back Daron Bland. He had nine picks, with several taken back for a TD, with an 89.5 PFF grade in 2023 and then in 2024 no picks and the 51st best CB grade. We can only hope this happens with Joseph. 

Verdict: Xavier McKinney

GM of the Year

I think they call this one executive of the year but that makes no sense. GM of the year is obviously Brian Gutekunst. If you hadn't figured out, I'm just picking Packers here. 

Gutekunst had another pretty good off-season last year. He signed two pro-bowlers in free agency and picked what looks like the best Packers linebacker in 20 years in the second round. If that was it, it would be a good year. He also picked two more solid defensive starters in Evan Williams and Javon Bullard and we don't even know how good Jordan Morgan, first-round pick on the o-line by the best o-line evaluators in the NFL, is. 

I don't think I'd give it to Kwesi. Neither first round pick played. And his impact free agents weren't as impactful as McKinney and Jacobs. He doesn't get credit for Darnold's play when he immediately picked a different QB in the first. 

Brad Holmes probably should win best GM of the last five years combined but in this past off-season he only drafted one player who made a legitimate impact and his only other acquisition to make an impact was 47-year-old Kevin Zeitler. 

Verdict: Brian Gutekunst

MVP

You know, I probably should have called this something like the case for a Packer to win each of the 2024 season awards. I just can't do it with MVP. Jordan Love wasn't good enough consistently enough and missed a few games. So it comes down to Darnold and Goff. I can see making any of the above arguments in a bar or something but can't do it with this one. Which means we have to actually decide if it should be Darnold or Goff. Does anyone actually want to read that?