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The Bengals offense has had its struggles this season. The unit is ranked just 27th in rushing and 23rd in total yards per game Andy Dalton Jersey , but offensive coordinator Bill Lazor has managed to get points on the board regardless. His group is the 10th ranked scoring offense in the NFL and besides a few rough patches along the way, his system has been more successful than not. There are plenty of reasons why the team has been successful this season, and that is mostly because of all the emerging talented players on that side of the ball.Unfortunately, a few players were eliminated from consideration because of their extensive time missed due to injury. Players like Giovani Bernard and Tyler Eifert were among this group, and they deserve recognition for their production before their injuries, but we’re sticking to those who’ve been available the most. Joe Mixon was also a victim of this, as he missed two games due to minor knee surgery. If he can stay healthy, however, he could end up being the offensive MVP for the season. Before we reveal the offensive MVP, here are the honorable mentions:A.J. Green and Tyler Boyd, wide receiversThese two honestly had really strong cases on their own. Boyd leads the team with 49 catches, and Green leads the team with 687 receiving yards and six touchdowns. Both are producing at similar levels across the stat sheet, and whenever one had a down game, the other took it upon himself to carry the passing game. It’s been impressive witnessing what Boyd has been able to do in his third season. Last year he was essentially a non-factor up until the final two weeks of the season, but this year he has proven to be the compliment to Green that this team has needed since they let Marvin Jones Jr. and Mohamed Sanu walk following the 2015 season.What kept these two from being MVP altogether is each other’s presence. The fact they have put up eerily similar numbers can’t be ignored when the race for MVP has been this close up until this point in the season. You could argue that Green is more valuable because of the attention he receives every game, but even then it is still hard to put him that much farther ahead of Boyd.Midseason Offensive MVPAndy Dalton, quarterbackThe Dalton haters don’t have much weight behind their jeers at this point. We need to recognize the season Dalton has put together so far. First of all A.J. Green Jersey , his production, and the consistency of its accumulation, have been admirable. He has 2,102 passing yards (13th in the NFL), 17 touchdowns (tied for third) while only been sacked 16 times, which has as much to do with him getting rid of the ball quickly and avoiding pressure as the improvements to the offensive line.The first number many will point to criticize Dalton is his interceptions, as he is tied for fourth in the NFL with eight. However, when you look at those numbers on a game-to-game basis, he only has one game with more than one interception, which was when he had four interceptions against the Panthers thanks to a couple of tipped passes. It is also worth mentioning that Dalton only has two weeks this season where he has thrown less than two touchdowns (he has no games without a touchdown). He has had two or more touchdowns in six of his eight games. The lack of disaster games from the Bengals quarterback has been a breath of fresh air.Finally, let’s talk about how clutch he has been this season. In Week 1 against the Colts, the Bengals were facing a 13-point deficit in the third quarter. He helped lead the offense to 17 straight points before Clayton Fejedelem put the game away with a fumble recovery for a touchdown. Three weeks later, the Falcons were up by six against Dalton’s Bengals with just over four minutes remaining. After converting not one, but two fourth-down conversions, Dalton tied the game up with a dart to Green in the end zone in the final seconds of the game. An extra point from kicker Randy Bullock sealed the Bengals’ third win of the season.Against the Steelers two weeks later, Dalton orchestrated another successful final drive to take the lead, but his defense couldn’t hold back the Steelers offense in the final seconds. There were people who criticized them for scoring too soon Michael Jordan Cincinnati Bengals Jersey , but how many times in the Dalton era has the offense even pulled off such a drive in that situation?Of course, he just put one together against the Buccaneers last week after the defense gave up 18 fourth-quarter points. Dalton put the team in field goal position and allowed Bullock to make up for his missed extra point earlier in the game.Dalton’s stats may not blow us away, and they aren’t of that of an elite quarterback. You still have to admit the Bengals wouldn’t be close to 5-3 if it weren’t for him this season. Now that Eric Winston is no longer playing pro football, he's not exactly soaking up the rays in some exotic locale.He's preparing for the rest of his life by attending the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, while also handling a myriad of duties as president of the NFL players' union.Yes, Winston, 34, has the funds to make an easier transition from the football field to the field of business after a 12-year NFL career. Many of his peers do, too.And many don't.Thanks to The Trust, though, the opportunity is there for nearly anyone who had at least two accredited seasons of NFL service to return to school to complete their degrees, or to pursue advanced degrees such as Winston is doing, or to attend a trade school.More than 1,500 scholarships worth more than $12.2 million have been awarded through The Trust, which will reach its fifth anniversary next month. Last spring, 115 former players used the scholarship program, and 87 more did in the summer.While the back-to-school portion of The Trust that developed out of the 2011 labor agreement following a lengthy lockout is important Michael Jordan Jersey 2019 , Winston stressed how much more there is to the program."The longer you play, the less applicable you feel to transition into something outside," he says. "You've been so long out of the typical workforce, if you will, and you see a lot of college buddies who are pretty well down the span of their life in their careers. And you think to yourself, 'How are you going to catch up?' It's sort of a daunting task."The Trust really helps guys get right first, whether it is dealing with injuries, substance abuse, so many issues that are there with guys coming off the field and who can't get to the next phase of their lives. It's getting guys physically and mentally ready with the transition."Another step in that process is the use of former players who have made that transition. Anthony Becht, who played 11 seasons as a tight end, is one of those "captains" who serve as mentors.Becht currently is an analyst for ESPN's college football telecasts and also did preseason games for the New York Jets. He sees his role as an educator — letting men who have left the league know about the benefits The Trust provides — and as a sounding board."We tend to have different conversations depending on how long a guy is out," Becht says. "In general, once they learn this is not activated yet and is something they have earned, they want to know where it came from and why it's available now. It's letting them know we are not affiliated with anyone, we're trying to give you something you have earned and trying to provide you with the multiple programs we have."Among those programs are five pillars:—Brain and Body: The Trust has partnered with the University of North Carolina Brain and Body Health Program; Tulane's Institute of Sports Medicine; the Cleveland Clinic and its locations in Ohio, Florida, Nevada and at the Hoag Institute of Neuroscience in California; and the Massachusetts General Hospital Brain and Body Program.—Careers: The Trust has partnered with AthLife Color Rush Michael Jordan Jersey , Babson College, and Lee Hecht Harrison.—Education: A partnership with AthLife.—Lifestyle: Partnerships with EXOS and the YMCA.—Financial: Partnerships with Financial Finesse and Hillard Heintze."I can't stress enough how difficult it is to run a full suite of services like that," Winston says. "Just think about just trying to help in the transition. And then we have another (program) with scholarships, and then to help guys get placed from there. It's not an easy task."To Becht, there is a boots to the ground element because The Trust is relatively new, and getting out the word that it not only exists but can be so helpful to former players is paramount. This isn't some club for those men to join, it's a benefit they have earned similar to a pension. He believes a majority of the eligible former players don't know about The Trust, or there has been confusion about what is available and what is not."Whether you have money saved or have done successful stuff off the field or kind of played several years and made decent money, whatever your angle may be — even for guys who never saved anything — everyone will go through a withdrawal period," Becht says. "How do you turn the page and get your life on a new schedule?"The programs are ridiculously huge in regards to the access guys have now. You can jump into anything, but guys have got to want to do it, whether through the NFLPA or the NFL."