Tyreek Hill deserves NFL Most Valuable Player award at this stage

There are some years where everything just sort of runs together in the National Football League. This is one of them. When that happens, it's a prime time for the league to sneak some things through: like perhaps a non-quarterback candidate for Most Valuable Player.

This year, Tyreek Hill is feasting on opposing defenses at an unbelievable level—and this is several years into a career in which he's turned heads with his complete game, elite speed, dynamic moves, and incredible hands. Hill is already a true superstar with his own identifiable nickname—The Cheetah—and a bust currently being carved out for his eventual Canton enshrinement.

Somehow, however, Hill has taken things to even greater heights in 2023.

On Sunday, Hill averaged over 31 yards/catch on five catches and another two touchdowns to pad his season totals—or in other words, to stretch his already league-leading totals. To date, that is through Week 13, Hill now has 93 catches for 1,481 receiving yards, and 12 touchdowns. The final two totals lead the NFL.

Hill is averaging an eye-popping 120 yards/game at this point, which puts him on pace to eclipse the NFL record set of 1,964 by Calvin Johnson with the Detroit Lions back in 2012. In fact, Hill is on pace to break the 2K-yards barrier for the first time in NFL history. Certainly such an event would force voters to look his way, right?

Even more, everything else (or everyone else, to be clear) just runs together at this stage. Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen has too many turnovers and team losses. Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has needed his defense to win too many games (and his receivers have tanked his numbers with significant drops). Jalen Hurts is likely your best quarterback but it's hard to make a solid case for him that stands out head-and-shoulders above the rest.

Further cases can be made for Dak Prescott or Lamar Jackson or Brock Purdy or other such players, and perhaps someone will get red hot in the next five weeks to separate himself from the bunch, but all the while, we're only even looking that way to make sure someone at quarterback wins the award. It's ridiculous at this point that it's even a debate.

But voters are still going to have a hard time with voting for Tyreek Hill—even if he sets a new record for production at the position. No wide receiver has ever won the NFL's MVP award and the last non-quarterback to win it was running back Adrian Peterson back in 2012. In short, it's an anomaly when a non-QB wins it and even then it's a running back if someone is going to upset that cart.

The season is not over yet, of course. It's possible that Hill is derailed by an injury or suddenly hits a wall of better defensive schemes. It's also true that another star player could heat up and take over by season's end. But if we're being honest, Tyreek Hill is a man among boys this season, a standout flavor in a year where it's all running together. It'd be silly to give in to historic precedent and ignore the brilliance on display at a new position.