Welcome in to the final regular season edition of the NFL awards. This week, in lieu of handing out awards celebrating the best of the final week of the season, we hand out awards for the best (and worst) of the regular season. 

Let's hand out some hardware...

The "MVP" award goes to Drew Brees
Consider this an upset if you must, but you just can't deny someone who not only broke the NFL's record for passing yardage in a season, but completely re-set the bar for it. This award will likely be decided on the field between Brees and Aaron Rodgers soon, as an NFC title showdown between them at Lambeau Field seems like it's just a mere formality. But that's why they play the games, starting with the Saints getting the Lions on Saturday night.

The "rookie of the year" award goes to Andy Dalton
Cam Fans, listen up: I have nothing against Cam Newton. Really, I don't. But at some point, you have to pay attention to wins and losses. And Dalton took a 4-12 team all the way to a 9-7 mark in his rookie season, and has led them to the playoffs. We here at the NFL awards suspect that we will be the only ones to share that opinion, but we feel like someone has to take that stand. Consider it done.

The "coach of the year" award goes to Jim Harbaugh
There were many candidates for this award, but Harbaugh was the winner for two reasons: one, he scares us, and two, if you can take a team led at quarterback by Alex Smith and lead them to 13 wins, then you've really done something. And while they are at best the third best team in a loaded NFC, who's to say his style won't lead them to the promised land?

The "most overrated coache(es)" award is shared by the Rex & Rob Ryan
Awarded to Rex because he lost control of his team down the stretch, and awarded to Rob because his supposedly vaunted defensive skills actually led to a regression in the Cowboys' defense compared to the numbers under Wade Phillips. But really, we award this out of sheer spite, due to the fact that for years, the Ryan family has been despised by true Cowboys fans. So there. An argument ensued between the two when they couldn't agree on who would accept the award.


The "most overrated team" award goes to the Dallas Cowboys
It's hard for me to award this to the hometown team, but the second the show starts, I must walk the straight-and-narrow path of being a non-biased journalist. And really, if we're being honest, the Cowboys have deserved this award for years. The award was presented by local Dallas-area sports anchor Rontina McCann, who was last seen leaving with a portly football writer, as they headed for a hotel room to take their twitter relationship to the next level...

The "most overrated player" award goes to Tim Tebow
We feel like he finally earned this award with his play in the Broncos' final three games, all losses. But it's the football media that really deserves it, because if they hadn't overvalued him as a player in the first place, he wouldn't have earned this award. That being said, everyone starts with a blank slate in the playoffs, so there's another chance for Tim to change people's perceptions of him, starting Sunday against the Steelers.

The "play of the year" award goes to Jerome Simpson
And really, he would win this award if it was for "play of the year", "play of the century", or "play of forever". We don't know if the USA has filled out all of the roster spots for the men's gymnastics team for the London Olympics this summer, but we think they'd be smart to give Mr. Simpson a call if they have any spots left. Thankfully, he didn't try to recreate it when he accepted the award. Those really giving thanks are all the Bengal fans, who have a pretty game to watch in Houston on Saturday.

The "most disappointing team" award goes to the Philadelphia Eagles
And a heated debate broke out in the NFL awards offices about rather or not the Eagles should've been voted "most overrated". The distinction? The Eagles couldn't have been "overrated" from a talent standpoint. so therefore a special award was created just for them. But as they came up to accept the award, they vowed to make all media members, including those that run a fake awards show every week, that they would be living up to the hype sooner rather than later.



The "Super Bowl sleeper" award goes to the New York Giants
And admittedly, we're basing this on only one game against the team that was just crowned our "most overrated." But this award, is after all, designed to name a team in the postseason that has the best chance to get all the way to the Super Bowl as a low seed. And it's still pretty clear that the G-Men, when right, have the ability to make it the 2007 post-season all over again. Or they could lose to the Falcons Sunday. But at least they have this award.

The "Super Bowl favorite" award goes to the Green Bay Packers
Yes, it might seem as though we are contradicting ourselves a bit here, but rather or not we actually believe that the Saints will go to Lambeau and win shouldn't change the fact that the 15-1 defending champs, with the single biggest psychological home-field advantage in football, are the huge favorites to repeat. And you know what they say about being "the man." "To be the man, you've got to beat the man."

And with that, the regular season ends, as does the regular season for the NFL awards. But fear not, my faithful readers, the NFL awards will be here every week after the playoffs to hand out more hardware. 



 

Follow @FFChamps on Twitter

The views and content in this article are not necessarily the opinion of Fantasy Football Champs, www.FFChamps.com, and its in-house experts.