It would seem like choosing a most valuable player for fantasy football would be easy. Everything a player does shifts into one column: fantasy points. So, he who has the most fantasy points must be the MVP, right? It is not quite that simple because scoring is not standardized, draft position can be considered, and position scarcity plays a part. Nevertheless, our Board of Directors was able to boil the candidates down to the five best.

This year’s batch of finalists came from votes collected from the FSWA Board of Directors. FSWA members can vote for this year’s fantasy football most valuable player by sending a ballot (Deadline Jan. 18) listing the top 5, in ranking order, to: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Here are the 2009 FSWA fantasy football MVP finalists (in alphabetical order):

QB Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints
For the second straight season, Brees led the NFL’s best offensive attack. The team again scored more than 500 points (31.9 per game) and while New Orleans will throw some running plays into the mix, the assault begins and ends with the arm of the quarterback. Brees made a strong impression in Week 1 with six touchdowns and had five other weeks in which he threw for at least three. Brees also threw for 300 or more yards seven times. While he was unlikely to exceed his 5,069-season from 2008, his 4388 yards were not too shabby.

RB Chris Johnson, Tennessee Titans
Coming into the season, the talented Johnson figured to be in a timeshare again with LenDale White. The slimmed down White had gobbled up most of the touchdowns in 2008 and Johnson figured to do most of his running between the 20s. What fantasy owners did not expect was that East Carolina grad would take off from the opponents’ 20-yard line and not stop until he hit the end zone. Johnson has nine touchdown plays of 30 or more yards, seven of 50 or more yards. In Week 2 against the Texans, Johnson had scores of 57, 69, and 91 yards. He hit the magical 2,000-yard mark and scored 12 touchdowns. In PPR leagues, he also made his pass-catching presence felt with 50 catches for 503 yards and two scores.

RB Maurice Jones-Drew, Jacksonville Jaguars
For the first time in his four-year career, Jones-Drew entered a season as the primary running back for the Jaguars. With Fred Taylor in New England, the fantasy prospects for MJD were very high. The bowling ball from UCLA endured the season and tallied 15 rushing touchdowns and 1,391 yards. The Jaguars featured Jones-Drew as a receiver a little less than in past seasons, but he still managed to catch 53 passes for 374 yards and a score. During the regular season, the Jaguar back failed to a score a TD in just six games and he had a very nice Week 15 with 110 yards and two scores (one rushing, one receiving).

RB Ray Rice, Baltimore Ravens
Like Johnson, Rice figured to be a part-time runner and that drove his stock way down prior to the season. Willis McGahee vultured a number of touchdowns during the season, but that did not dim the production from the second-year back out of Rutgers. More than any other running back, Rice created havoc out of the backfield and had 78 receptions for 702 yards out of the backfield. From Weeks 6 to 10, he scored at least one touchdown in each game and finished the season with seven rushing touchdowns and a receiving score. He also ran for 1,339 yards and punished defenses at 5.3 yards per carry. All in all, Rice went from a sleeper to the top of the board in 2010.

QB Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers
Rodgers proved in 2008 -- his first year as a starter -- that he could be a viable fantasy quarterback. In his second season as the signal caller for the Packers, the 26-year-old showed that he could take a beating and learn from it. In the first half of the season, the Packer offensive line had all kinds of trouble protecting Rodgers and the California grad was sacked 41 times in the first nine games. Despite the punishment, the Packer quarterback kept producing. He threw for multiple touchdowns ten times and had 30 touchdowns compared to seven interceptions. Rodgers also threw for 300-plus yards five times and scored five touchdowns on the ground. Rodgers had a huge game in the shootout against the Steelers in Week 15.