Tetairoa McMillan has tight ROY competition, but he should be the runaway

The Rookie of the Year award, on offense, is most often given to a quarterback. Four of the last six OROY winners have been quarterbacks. It takes a lot for a non-QB to win the award in a given NFL season.

It requires a perfect storm of good play from non-QBs and bad play from QBs, which has happened this year. And so far, Carolina Panthers rookie Tetairoa McMillan seems to be the favorite for the award.

But according to many, the betting odds included, it's a fairly tight race between McMillan and a rookie quarterback. It shouldn't be.

Panthers rookie Tetairoa McMillan should be clear award favorite

According to DraftKings, Tetairoa McMillan is -140 to win the award, so he's the favorite now. But lurking not far behind is New Orleans Saints QB Tyler Shough at +140.

With all due respect to Shough, this shouldn't be close. He has looked like the best quarterback in this rookie class so far, but he's only started part of this season.

According to CBS Sports analyst Jordan Dajani, "[Shough's] nine starts would be the fewest ever by a quarterback to win Offensive Rookie of the Year." He's not exactly lighting it all the way up, so games played should matter.

He has completed 67.8% of his passes for 2,125 yards, nine touchdowns, and five interceptions. Those are good but not great numbers, and they should not be good enough to usurp a full-season player who has been good all year long.

McMillan has 66 catches for 929 yards and seven touchdowns, and he's doing that in an offense that runs way more than it passes. The offense, to be truthful, has some quarterback and playcalling inconsistencies, too.

And outside of McMillan, there is no one worth noting on the Panthers' offense. Defenses should just bracket or double him and make everyone else beat them, but McMillan is so good that he has produced in spite of being the only player the defense cares about.

McMillan probably would be running away with the award had it not been for a total dud last week. He caught one pass for five yards. He was sick and questionable to play before and battled through it, but he didn't do his awards campaign many favors.

The good news is that he's now got a chance to help win the NFC South and put up numbers on a team he torched for six catches, 73 yards, and a touchdown in Week 16.

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