It’s Week 9 of the NFL season, which means it’s time to hand out some totally meaningless hardware! We’ve seen a half season’s worth of action, and our local and national NFL writers and editors used that sample size to vote on a midseason MVP, a most surprising team, a winner of the Super Bowl and more for the 2018 season. We had 30 voters in total, and while there were some runaways (hi, MVP and offensive rookie of the year!), the other category centered on rookies was decidedly more divisive — it took a tiebreaking vote to pick a winner between Darius Leonard and Derwin James. You can see our picks for all eight categories below:



MVP: PATRICK MAHOMES, QB, CHIEFS



Mahomes received 21 out of 30 votes. Also receiving votes: Todd Gurley (8), Jared Goff (1).



Much like he’s been doing to opposing defenses this year, Patrick Mahomes dominated The Athletic’s midseason MVP voting. Which is saying a lot considering this is a...