Sports fans always chase their tails in debating post-season awards. What exactly do things like Most Valuable Player and Player of the Year mean anyway?
And those media post-mortems — ranked roster listings and letter grades — almost invariably suffer for lack of clear criteria.
Just to illustrate briefly the difference made by defining one’s terms, here are a few Browns player top ten lists of my own.
Most outstanding 2007 season
- Braylon Edwards
- Josh Cribbs
- Joe Thomas
- Jamal Lewis
- Kellen Winslow
- Eric Steinbach
- Derek Anderson
- Phil Dawson
- Sean Jones
- Kevin Shaffer
Mr. Couldn’t-have-won-ten-games-without-him
- Derek Anderson
- Braylon Edwards
- Jamal Lewis
- Kellen Winslow
- Joe Thomas
- Eric Steinbach
- Josh Cribbs
- Leigh Bodden
- Robaire Smith
- Hank Fraley
Most important for ’08 and beyond
- Joe Thomas
- Braylon Edwards
- Kellen Winslow
- Kamerion Wimbley
- Eric Wright
- Sean Jones
- Josh Cribbs
- Brady Quinn
- Shaun Smith
- Eric Steinbach
Best ’07 value (“bang for the buck” award)
- Derek Anderson
- Lawrence Vickers
- Josh Cribbs
- Leon Williams
- Eric Wright
- Jason Wright
- Sean Jones
- Hank Fraley
- Brandon McDonald
- Daven Holly
