Fan Poll: Panthers Season MVP

ESPN's Jeff Chadiha has selected his team MVP's for every NFL team and I was a little surprised by his pick for the Panthers.

Carolina: Jon Beason, MLB. The Panthers fell out of contention so quickly that it was easy to miss Beason's contributions. He has a bright future in this league.

Don't get me wrong its not that I think Beason doesn't deserve it. I'm just a little surprised that somebody outside of the Panther nation recognized it. Besides, he's a rookie and few rookies get nominated as team MVP's (though Jeff has a couple others in his post: Adrian Peterson & Patrick Willis). The NFL rookie of the year voting should be interesting, but I digress. Beason has been in my opinion the lone bright spot in what has otherwise been a very disappointing season in Charlotte.

Most pundits go for the usual pick: WR Steve Smith. Smitty is a Pro Bowl caliber player and you could argue he is the Panthers best player. Yet the QB problems have reflected on his seasonal stats which also resulted in his Pro Bowl snub.

My thinking though is that the award should go to a defensive player because the defense has led this team in 2007. If not for the defense the Panthers would probably be about 3-12 right now. My other defensive choices might be DT Kris Jenkins or SS Chris Harris. Jenkins has been the vocal leader on the team and Harris has been a playmaker.

On offense I think RT Jordan Gross should get some consideration. Otherwise I can't think of another option. DeShaun Foster fumbles too much and D-Will doesn't get the touches.

So I'm curious what the rest of you think.