In an era where the Baseball Hall of Fame vote is under intense scrutiny for finding the identity of the one voter who did not make Ichiro a unanimous Hall of Famer, we have to give some props to our friend Sam Monson for owning his part in Jayden Daniels not being a unanimous AP NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year.
Monson was the one out of 50 voters who did not have Jayden first on his ballot, instead giving the nod to Raiders tight end Brock Bowers, who also got 32 second-place votes to finish as the runner-up. And, when that was pointed out on X and he was asked why, this was Monson’s reply:
“Brock Bowers had an all-time great season at a position that is not easy to succeed at right out of the gate. Just like Daniels. Daniels won because of the QB bonus in today's game, but it's pretty clear Bowers has a very strong case.”
Understandable, but Grant Paulsen caught up with Monson, and, well, he knew he was in for it.
“You don't love it. I have a pretty good idea of what my mentions are going to look like for the next couple of days,” Monson said. “To me, they were extremely close, and I think either one of them wins in another season. I knew I’d be in a minority, but I was surprised I was the minority of one. Even the guys from the AP don’t know if there’s been a unanimous winner, but ultimately, 49 concurred on this one.”
And, he gave Grant a few more reasons than 280 characters could hold.
“It’s a regular-season award, so the playoffs that enhanced his candidacy didn’t matter, because the deadline is the day after the end of the regular season,” Monson said. “That would’ve pushed Daniels above Bowers, but you’re talking about two guys who had incredible rookie years, and Bowers had a better season than the benchmark for a rookie tight end. QB is the hardest position to play, but tight end is not an easy position to hit the ground running, either. He was breaking not just tight end records, but rookie receiving records.”
And while both guys are record-setting, there’s more of a chance, in Monson’s mind, that Daniels’ will be beaten long before Bowers’ are.
“Daniels was incredible, but the records he’s been breaking were all recent. There’s a run of quarterbacks coming out, hitting the ground running, and being successful quickly,” Monson said. “Bowers is doing stuff that hasn’t been done since the 1960s, doing it with two quarterbacks who aren’t needle movers, no run game, and without a ton of weapons taking attention away.
He was their offense, and was still putting up crazy numbers.”
Monson understands why 49 others put Daniels’ name first, and again, it was close, but this time, he’s the guy who looks weird even though Brock Bowers was, indeed, a beast.