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New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees has been named NFL Offensive Player of the Year by the Associated Press. Nice honor, but I view that as a sign of things to come and I’m not talking about something good.

I’m talking about the Most Valuable Player Award. That hasn’t been announced yet. But, unless my instincts and everything I’ve heard are wrong, Brees isn’t going to be the MVP. The conventional wisdom is that award will go to Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers.

No offense to Rodgers, who certainly had a great year. But I don’t think I’m the only one who finds it strange that Brees had one of the greatest seasons ever by a quarterback (or any player) and he’s not the MVP.

Brees set an NFL record for passing yards in a season (5,476) and his numbers were as good or better than Rodgers’ in just about every category.

I see two reasons why it’s seemed like a foregone conclusion that Rodgers will be the MVP. First, the Packers went 15-1. Second, the Packers are a national team.

You can’t really change that now and the difference between Green Bay’s 15-1 mark and New Orleans’ 13-3 record isn’t that much, especially when you consider that both teams came up short of the NFC Championship Game.

But there are two ways to remedy this going forward. The first one is simple. The Saints have to go out and win more games than the Packers, with Brees still putting up huge numbers. The second is for the Saints to become a bit more of a national team.

They’re close. They’ve got a dedicated local fan base and a pretty large national profile, which has grown tremendously since the arrival of Brees and coach Sean Payton in recent years. But there’s still room for growth.

The way to achieve that growth is for Brees to continue to play the way he has and the Saints to win a bunch of games.

If by some wild chance, Brees does win the MVP, I’ll jump back in. But I think the Offensive Player of the Year is his consolation prize.

Update: The announcement just came. Rodgers was named MVP.

I don’t think this will come as a surprise to anyone, but Carolina quarterback Cam Newton has been named the Offensive Rookie of the Year by the Associated Press.

The real surprise would have been if Newton had not won the award. But that didn’t even come close to happening. Newton received 47 of the 50 votes. Cincinnati quarterback Andy Dalton received the other three votes.

In many other years, Dalton’s season would have been enough to earn him the honor. But Newton had no ordinary season.

Although the Panthers only won six games, you could make the argument Newton had the best rookie season ever by a quarterback. He set a new rookie record for passing yards and became the first player in NFL history to throw for 4,000 yards and rush for 500 yards in the same season. Newton also set an NFL record for rushing touchdowns (14) by a quarterback.

Despite the losing record, Newton brought hope to a franchise that had been very down. Carolina went 2-14 in 2010 and coach John Fox wasn’t retained. He was replaced by Ron Rivera, who joined with general manager Marty Hurney in making what many viewed as a risky decision to use the first overall draft pick on Newton.

A lot of skeptics wondered if Newton would be able to run an NFL offense after running what those same skeptics said was a very simple offense at Auburn. Although the lockout prevented Newton from working with coaches until the start of training camp, it didn’t take him long to grasp the offense.

He earned the starting job in training camp and opened his career in spectacular fashion, passing for more than 400 yards in each of his first two games.

Although Carolina’s defense was decimated by injuries, Newton and the offense continued to improve as the season went on.

During the season, Newton talked frequently about how the losing bothered him. If Carolina can just improve its defense a bit, Newton’s not going to have to endure many more losing seasons.