The Maxwell Football Club officially announced some of their award winners for the 2017 NFL season and two notable Philadelphia Eagles made the list. Carson Wentz was named the 59th Bert Bell Professional Player of the Year while Doug Pederson was selected as the 29th Greasy Neale Professional Coach of the Year.
Here’s what their release had to say about Wentz:
In only his second NFL season, Wentz established himself as one of the best quarterbacks in the league. Wentz becomes the sixth Eagle to receive the prestigious Bert Bell Award joining Norm Van Brocklin (1960), Pete Retzlaff (1965), Ron Jaworski (1980), Randall Cunningham, who won it twice (1988 & 1990), and Michael Vick (2010), the last Eagle to win the Bert Bell Award. Cunningham also won the award a third time (1988) as a member of the Minnesota Vikings.
Wentz receives the Bert Bell Award after setting an Eagles franchise record for touchdown passes in a season with 33, over 13 games, exceeding the previous mark held by Sonny Jurgensen, who threw for 32 over 14 games in 1961. Wentz, who was lost for the season with a torn ACL during the third quarter of the Eagles’ 43-35 victory over the Los Angeles Rams on Dec. 11, 2017, completed 265 of 440 passes for 3,296 yards during the season.
At the time of his injury, Wentz became one of three players in NFL history (joining Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers, who both have done it twice) to have 33 touchdown passes and no more than seven interceptions in 13 games. He was ranked fourth in the NFL with a passer rating of 101.9, and was named NFC Offensive Player of the Month in October. During his groundbreaking season, Wentz also had six games with three touchdown passes and four games with four touchdown passes. He had thrown one-plus touchdown pass and no morethan one interception in 15 straight games, which is tied for the sixth-longest streak by an NFL QB since 1950.
Wentz joins Hall of Fame running back Early Campbell (1979) as the only players to have won the Bert BellAward in their second NFL season.
And here’s what was said about Pederson:
Pederson becomes the third Eagles coach to win the Greasy Neale Professional Coach of the Year Award, joining Chip Kelly (2013) and Andy Reid (2010). Pederson is also the third Eagles coach to lead the team to the Super Bowl, joining Reid (2004) and Dick Vermeil (1980), and is the only Eagles coach to lead the team to a conference title in just his second year, where he’s complied a 22-12 record, including playoffs, which is the best two-year start of any coach in franchise history.
There’s a very strong case to be made that Wentz was the 2017 NFL MVP and Pederson was the Coach of the Year. Unfortunately, it looks like they won’t receive those honors from the NFL.
Still, it’s nice to see them get some recognition from the Maxwell Football Club. Wentz and Pederson were fantastic in 2017. And Pederson can still become the first coach in Eagles franchise history to lead Philadelphia to a Super Bowl victory if he’s able to beat the Patriots.