Green Bay Packers: Week 7 MVP and other awards

The Green Bay Packers rolled over the Houston Texans 35-20 this week, so it’s time to hand out some awards to top performers.

Co-Offensive MVPs – Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams

With how much these two hooked up on Sunday, I couldn’t decide who should get the Offensive MVP for the Green Bay Packers, so Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams are going to each take home half of the award this week. Rodgers got back on the MVP campaign trail, throwing for 283 yards and four touchdowns while completing 67.6 percent of his passes. Although he threw touchdowns to three different receivers, there weren’t any other weapons that did much of anything in the receiving game other than number 17.

Adams was Rodgers’ favorite target all day as 16 of his 34 pass attempts were directed at Adams, who caught 13 of them for 196 yards and two touchdowns. He made contested catches down the field, he ran great routes to get separation and easy completions and even had some behind the line of scrimmage catches to let him make a play with the ball in his hands. Adams was simply too much for this Houston defense, and they had no answers for him. Rodgers took advantage and got his best weapon the ball, so they will split the credit for the offensive bounce back this week.

Defensive MVP – Raven Greene

Raven Greene has been getting progressively more involved in the defense since coming back from injury in week two. He played a nice game against Atlanta, but this one may very well have been his best as a member of the Green Bay Packers. He was all over the place for this defense and made eight tackles, five of which were solo, and knocked away two passes. He was active in both the run and pass game and was very rarely out of position.

Preston Smith also had a nice game and recorded a tackle for loss after five very quiet games where he failed to rush the passer and contain the edge well on runs. Za’Darius Smith also looked much better rushing the passer this week, coming away with a sack and two quarterback hits. But it was Greene who shined the most this week.

Flip that Field Award – J.K. Scott

This week, J.K. Scott wasn’t as busy as he was against the Buccaneers, but he still did punt it four times. In these four punts, he racked up 207 yards for an average of 51.8 yards per attempt. He also had a booming long punt of 62 yards, while one of his punts was downed at the two yard-line.

Some people would say that drafting a punter in the fifth round of the draft is a waste, and his performance has been up and down the past few years. However, he’s now won one of my awards two weeks in a row, so I think it’s pretty safe to say this was a home run of a pick. If he wins another one next week, he’ll have the extremely elusive trifecta, and that would probably make him a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer. Stay tuned to see if he can do it.

Best Player Return – Kamal Martin

Out of all the rookies that were in camp this year, Martin had the most hype around him for how he was performing in team sessions. Unfortunately, he suffered a torn meniscus just weeks before the first regular-season game of the year, which knocked him out of game action until Sunday.

He had a very solid debut, making six tackles, one for a loss, and playing very well beside fellow rookie linebacker Krys Barnes. Coming into the season, the middle linebacker position was one with concern around it, and even more so after Christian Kirksey went down.

Now, with Martin, Barnes, and Greene playing well in the middle of the field, the Green Bay Packers have three good options to put out there. Greene, as the box safety, will play more on passing downs and Martin more on early and running downs. However, we could see any combination of these guys on the field in weeks to come, and hopefully, they continue to grow as a young core inside.

Celebration of the Week – Jamaal Williams

Jamaal Williams isn’t getting this award for just one celebration this week, but rather an entire game of being an unleashed ball of energy, even dancing before the game. Early in the first quarter, his helmet popped off, and he whipped his hair around like a complete maniac. He continued to throw his weight and hair around all day en route to going over 100 yards of total offense from scrimmage. But we’re not here to talk about his play between the whistles; we’re here to talk about the fun part after.

Williams brings this energy every single game, and it’s about time he got some recognition for it here with an award. Sure, I could’ve given his enthusiasm it’s completely own award and given Za’Darius Smith Celebration of the Week for his classic army crawl eating sack celebration, but we saw that last year, and he’ll have to keep stepping up his creativity to top the list this year. This week, Jamaal takes it for being 100 percent authentically himself, a complete goofball.

Celebration of the Year Leaderboard

1. Aaron Rodgers – Hingle Mccringleberry
2. Soul Train Line
3. Za’Darius Smith – Rest in Heaven Breonna Taylor
4. Jamaal Williams – Being a complete goofball
5. Chandon Sullivan – Lambeau Leap

What were your thoughts on the Green Bay Packers’ bounce-back win this week? What do you think of the Celebration of the Year Leaderboard so far? Let me know in the comments below or on Twitter @DairylandXpress.