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GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Of all the awards we handed out this week in the NFC North, this was the biggest no-brainer. After all, how could Aaron Rodgers be the NFL MVP and not the most valuable player in his own division? The answer, obviously, was that he couldn't. Rodgers was the unanimous choice by the ESPN NFL Nation reporters that cover this division. We know what Rodgers did this season, throwing 38 touchdown passes and just five interceptions, but let's break down what he did in division games only. Here are his numbers in the six NFC North games (with his season numbers in parenthesis): Record: 5-1 (12-4) Touchdown passes: 18 (38) Interceptions: 0 (five) Completion percentage: 69.3 (65.6) Passing yards: 1,370 (4,381) Yards per attempt: 9.13 (8.43) Passer rating: 137.5 (112.2) Total QBR: 94.3 (82.6)
Winning the division has always been the first -- and most important -- goal to Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy, and the Packers have done that four straight years. But Rodgers admitted on his ESPN Milwaukee radio show this week that while doing so will remain the focus, it's not the sole focus. They're thinking bigger. "I think in years past, you talk a lot about winning your division," Rodgers said. "I think after this season, we can stack on as a goal being a No. 1 seed because we know how much it means to have that home-field advantage." While Rodgers received all 15 points on the ballot based on his five first-place votes, six players in all received votes for the division MVP. The other five were: Ndamukong Suh (eight); Jordy Nelson (four); and Randall Cobb, Matt Forte and Golden Tate with one each. This concludes our NFC North season awards as voted on by reporters Rob Demovsky (Packers), Ben Goessling (Vikings), Michael Rothstein (Lions), Jeff Dickerson (Bears) and Michael C. Wright (Bears). In addition to Rodgers being named MVP, he also was the offensive player of year. Suh was the defensive player of the year. Teddy Bridgewater was the rookie of the year. Jim Caldwell was the coach of the year.
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