MVN: Most Valuable Network

Some players are just too important to their teams to go down with injury.  Very rare, in a sport that rosters 53 men and countless coaches, is the player whose presence makes or breaks a team.  This list is designed to recognize those rare players who make their team successful on a regular basis.

As you might imagine, this list is going to be dominated by Quarterbacks and Left Tackles.  But select defensive players can also crack the top of this list, those players who totally change the dynamic of the game when they are in there.

The guy who just barely missed this list was Cowboys QB Tony Romo.  He is undoubtedly indispensable to a degree, but moreso than the ten guys below?  I think not.

10.  Michael Roos, OT, Tennessee Titans
People don't give the Titans offense enough credit, because they have the best offensive line in the league by a significant margin, and Roos is the part that holds it all together.  He made his first pro bowl this year, but it certainly won't be his last.

9.  Drew Brees, QB, New Orleans Saints
Brees is a rare kind of Quarterback, the one who doesn't need dominant receiving targets to be dominant himself.  Brees understands offense better than any QB in the NFC, and he anticipates plays incredibly well.  Don't get me wrong, the guy has considerable talent catching passes from him in New Orleans, but Brees can get everyone involved, and create great offense in the process.

8.  Brian Westbrook, RB, Philadelphia Eagles
It's interesting that a running back can be considered indispensable, but I don't think any one word describes what type of freak Brian Westbrook is better than that one.  It's because he does it all: he runs, he catches, no back in the league is better at setting up his blocks on a screens, and oh yeah, if he needs to take a 'break', he also happens to be one of the better blocking backs in the NFL.

7.  Chris Samuels, OT, Washington Redskins
In August, I listed Samuels as the most indispensable Redskin in a feature I was doing similar to this one, but I had no idea how right I was until he got hurt, and then missed the final three games of the year.  Clinton Portis' fantasy owners know all about that.  The Redskins lost the ability to run the football without him in there, and they lost their best pass protector.  I don't know if Chris Samuels is the best tackle in the NFL, and I tend to think he is not, but I know that his team can't have success without him, making him definitively indispensable.

6.  Steve Smith, WR, Carolina Panthers
No player in the NFL is tougher for a defense to defend than this guy.  That's a pretty huge asset for a team like the Panthers, who prides itself on running the football.  It's clear that he's the one indispensable part in the offense, which is simply a mediocre unit when he is on the sideline.  The running game suffers when the safeties get within an earshot of the line of scrimmage, and the Panthers have a huge advantage on the outside that few, if any, other teams have.

5.  Tom Brady, QB, New England Patriots
Brady probably would have been higher than this a year ago, but late round draft pick Matt Cassel had some success in the same offense Brady had his MVP year in.  With that said, it's clear that as strong as that offense is independent of the quarterback, Brady was the part that made it flawless.  I suppose even a term like indispensable is relative, but the Pats were not even remotely competitive in 3 out of their 5 losses this year (all losses to playoff teams but the Jets), and they were too often competitive against teams like the Rams and the Chiefs.  You have to think with Brady in there, they would have been the super bowl favorite instead of a 2nd place team in a mediocre division.

4.  Troy Polamalu, S, Pittsburgh Steelers
The key here is his versatility.  You can play him as an eighth man in the box, you can play him 20 yards behind the play in deep coverage, you can play him in man coverage on a tight end on a slot receiver, and you can blitz him ten to fifteen times a game, and Troy Polamalu will excel at any phase of the game you want him to.  James Harrison was the correct choice for defensive player of the year, but Polamalu is the guy who can't be replaced in this defense.

3.  Andre Johnson, WR, Houston Texans
In todays game of football, the receiver which an entire offense can run through is very rare.  But Andre Johnson is this kind of player.  You can literally have a playbook where you run Johnson on all kinds of routes and he ends up being the primary receiver on every play, and you still won't be able to stop him.  The fact that there are no weaknesses in his game makes Andre Johnson the third most indispensable player in the NFL.

2.  Ed Reed, S, Baltimore Ravens
I believe that Ed Reed's coverage skills are over-rated to an extent, but what cannot be overstated is his effect on not only the Baltimore Ravens' coverage schemes, but how offenses are able to attack those schemes.  Reed is such a rare player because he's unbelievably physically talented, but that's not even why he's so good.  He's as good as he is because he studies tons of film and picks up on quarterback tendencies early in games that other less alert players will never pick up on.  He single-handedly changes the complexion of games, and that is not something that single defensive players can say.

1.  Peyton Manning, QB, Indianapolis Colts
Who's the best coach in the NFL?  Is it Bill Belichick?  2008 coach of the year Mike Smith?  Is it Jeff Fisher?  I think it's a trick question.  The best coach in the NFL isn't a coach at all, it's QB Peyton Manning of the Colts.  Manning just happens to be the league's best Quarterback as well, and a three-time most valuable player.  He would have been every bit as successful in any era he played in.  But there's good playcallers, who use cards on the sideline, and information from the press box, and then there are playcallers like Manning who takes a bunch of options to the line of scrimmage, analyzes the defense, and always makes them defend a play that the defensive call simply can not account for.  The fact that his passes are deadly accurate and he rarely makes a bad decision is icing on the cake.  Peyton Manning is the very most indispensable player in the NFL today, and very possibly ever.