NFL 2021 awards: Aaron Rodgers named Most Valuable Player for fourth time

Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has been named the NFL's Most Valuable Player for the fourth time.

Rodgers finished 2021's regular season with the NFL's highest passer rating (111.9), helping the Packers become the top seed in the NFC Conference.

Only three quarterbacks had more touchdown passes than Rodgers (37), who threw just four interceptions.

Rodgers, who also won the award in 2011, 2014 and 2020, is now only behind Manning (five) for the most MVPs.

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Votes are cast at the end of the regular season, with Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady and Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp the only other players to receive any votes.

Brady, 44, led the league for passing yards with a career-best 5,316. The seven-time Super Bowl winner retired after defending champions Tampa Bay lost in this year's play-offs.

Kupp, who became only the fourth player since 1970 to win the triple crown of most receptions (145), most receiving yards (1,947) and most receiving touchdowns (16), was named Offensive Player of the Year.

The 28-year-old also became the first wide receiver to pass 2,000 yards from scrimmage in a single season and post-season, and is set to add to his tally (2,349) in Super Bowl 56 on Sunday.

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Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker TJ Watt, 27, was named Defensive Player of the Year after tying Michael Strahan's single-season record for sacks (22.5), while the Dallas Cowboys' Micah Parsons was Defensive Rookie of the Year after the linebacker-turned-defensive-end became the first rookie in 25 years to pass 80 tackles and 10 sacks.

Wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase was named Rookie of the Year and Offensive Rookie of the Year after claiming the most receiving yards in a season by a rookie (1,455), helping the Cincinnati Bengals reach their first Super Bowl in 33 years.

Team-mate Joe Burrow was named Comeback Player of the Year. The second-year quarterback, 25, turned around Cincinnati's fortunes after his rookie season was cut short by a serious knee injury.

Mike Vrabel won Coach of the Year after the Tennessee Titans finished with a 12-5 record to secure the top seed in the AFC Conference, despite being without Derrick Henry, 2020's Offensive Player of the Year, for half the season.

What next for Rodgers?

Despite winning the 2020 MVP, there were doubts whether Rodgers would stay with Green Bay having become disgruntled with team management.

He returned after the Packers agreed for him to be more involved in team discussions and restructured his contract, making it easier for him to leave at the end of this season.

That set up a potential Last Dance scenario but, come the play-offs, Green Bay again came up short and Rodgers, who has spent his entire 17-year career with the Packers, still has only one Super Bowl win, in the 2010 season.

Rodgers said he "doesn't want to be part of a rebuild" and, while he considers a trade request or retirement, are the team ready to hand the quarterback reins to Jordan Love, their first-round draft pick from 2020?

"Do the Packers really want to keep dealing with all the things that happen with Aaron Rodgers?" said BBC pundit Osi Umenyiora. "At some point they might want to just rip that Band-Aid off and go forward into their future."

If Rodgers is traded, the Denver Broncos are seen as a potential destination. Their new head coach is Nathaniel Hackett, the Packers' offensive coordinator for the past three seasons.

Rodgers is having a home built in Tennessee so has been linked with the Titans, while Tampa Bay may be in the market for a new quarterback after Brady's retirement.

Rodgers has also been linked with his boyhood team, the San Francisco 49ers, who overlooked him when they had the first pick of the 2005 draft.

Rodgers famously said they would regret that decision but the Packers' play-off defeat by the 49ers means he has lost all four post-season games he has played against the 49ers.

After a costly error the following week as the Rams beat the 49ers to reach Super Bowl 56, San Francisco's much-maligned quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo is resigned to leaving and the Niners may not be willing to make Trey Lance the starter in his second season.

"You know that meme where the guy's with one girl and looking back [at another] - that's the San Francisco 49ers with Trey Lance and they're looking at Aaron Rodgers," Umenyiora said.

"I don't believe Trey Lance is the answer for them right now. Their team is built to win immediately and I think he's maybe a couple of years away from realising his full potential.

"The 49ers have to go get that guy who can compete with the NFC West quarterbacks. They don't have that guy on their roster right now."

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