The Arizona chapter of the Pro Football Writers Association presented its annual Steve Schoenfeld Good Guy and Lloyd Herberg MVP awards today. The latter was not a huge surprise. Linebacker Chandler Jones has 15 sacks, leads the NFL in sacks and tackles for loss, and deserves to be in the conversation for defensive Player of the Year. Larry Fitzgerald and Patrick Peterson have also been excellent, but Jones was a clear-cut choice.

It is fortunate that this locker room has multiple options for a the Good Guy award. Fitz and Peterson are always good, and there are plenty of others -- A.Q. Shipley and Antoine Bethea among them, although again, this locker room has a lot of options. That's excellent for writers like myself. But in the end the award went to defensive lineman Frostee Rucker. Rucker not only was available but he is always thoughtful in his answers, and in a year where the Cardinals (and the NFL) had some bumpy times with some bumpy subjects, Rucker was a go-to quote.

The awards are named after two former Cardinals and NFL beat writers for The Arizona Republic. Herberg was the team's first beat writer, covering the Cards from the the time they moved to Arizona in 1988 until he died of cancer in 1994. Schoenfeld covered the NFL and the Cardinals from 1988 to the summer of 2000, when he moved to a national NFL writing job. Schoenfeld was killed by a hit-and-run driver in October of 2000. The awards were presented by current Republic beat writer Kent Somers.