Tom Brady

It's over, Tom Brady is the NFL's MVP

Published Dec. 16, 2016 6:02 p.m. ET

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Dieter Kurtenbach

Tom Brady didn't need to play in the first four games of the 2016 season to compete for this year's MVP award, so he doesn't need the last three games of the year to win it.

The Patriots quarterback laid claim to the award with his best game of his now nine-game season Monday night — a 406-yard, 3-touchdown performance against one of the best defenses in the NFL.

Brady is now 8-1 on the year while averaging 320 yards and two-and-a-half touchdowns a game with only two interceptions, total. He's the best player, without question, on the team with the NFL's best record, and at an age where most quarterbacks should be watching games on the couch, he's having a downright merciless and almost unparalleled season.

There have been only two quarterbacks in NFL history who have thrown for 20 touchdowns in a season at or after age 39 — Brett Favre and Warren Moon. Brady makes it three, and his performance is the best of the bunch (though Favre's' 2009 was quite excellent.)

This season, there is tough competition for the MVP award, no doubt. Matthew Stafford is having an outstanding season for the Lions, Derek Carr has been stellar for the Raiders (as has Khalil Mack), and Ezekiel Elliott has been stellar for the Dallas Cowboys, but Brady has stood above them all this year.

You only needed to see Monday night's game to know that.

Brady was superb — he completed 71 percent of aimed passes for those 406 yards, per ProFootballFocus, good for a 126.6 quarterback rating.

But he shouldn't still be this good — not only is he 39 (this cannot be stressed enough), the team around him is hardly the best supporting cast he's had in New England. But he's still diagnosing defenses, no matter how exotic and dynamic they might be, and carving them up with expert precision.

It doesn't matter if Rob Gronkowski is playing or if Julian Edelman is in the lineup — at this point, it seems that Brady could find five guys in the parking lot and go for 300 and two touchdowns on any given night, so long as he's gotten in a full week of film study.

Take, for instance, his game-sealing touchdown to Chris Hogan Monday.

Brady knew it was a touchdown before the ball was snapped — he only needed to execute the play-fake and throw. Hogan only had to catch a perfectly thrown ball (could you imagine the sideline tantrum if he didn't?)

It shouldn't be this easy. That's great coaching on the sideline and expert precision from a master technician on the field.

The Patriots would be a good team without Brady — we saw that in the first four weeks of the season, when Brady was suspended — but they are truly great, compared to their peers, with him.

It's the same story every year, and it gets boring, for sure: Tom Brady is exceptional, the Patriots are one of the best teams in the NFL, and some up-and-comer or surprise player with awesome stats wins the MVP award.

That's why Brady only has two MVP awards — one from 2007 and one from 2010. Has he really only been the best player in the NFL for two years?

Don't make the same mistake again (or for the third, fourth, or fifth time), voters.

Brady is the best player in the NFL this year and the most valuable player in the league, and it only took him nine games to prove it.

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Tom Brady

Julian Edelman

Derek Carr

Chris Hogan

Khalil Mack

Matthew Stafford

Detroit Lions

New England Patriots

Dallas Cowboys

Las Vegas Raiders

National Football League