The St. Louis Rams' offensive MVP after the first half: A recovering Danny Amendola

Over at Turf Show Times, SB Nation's St. Louis Rams blog, editor Ryan Van Bibber took the bye week as an opportunity to name the team's first-half award-winners. All the awards are worth your while, but the most interesting one—the most telling one—is the offensive MVP pretend-trophy, which goes to none other than Danny Amendola. That's the same Danny Amendola who's missed more than a month with a collarbone injury, which if nothing else goes a long way toward explaining the Rams' offensive woes since their 17-3 statement-making win over the Arizona Cardinals.

Amendola winning the award is surprising—but what's more surprising is how he's come to deserve it. In 2010 he was the ultimate security blanket, a sure-handed slot receiver to whom Sam Bradford could dump four-yard passes when he was under pressure or nobody else was around.

In 2012 he's played that role—he caught 15 balls in Week 2—but each individual reception has been much more valuable than it was in the time of Shurmurball. The last reception he made for the Rams before going down with the injury was a 44-yard bomb from Bradford that set up a touchdown.

The Rams have done a surprisingly solid job of putting up yardage since he went down, but the offense has lacked whatever it is—a glue, a consistency, a variety of options, even—that would allow it to translate those yards into points. The return of Danny Amendola—as soon as this Sunday—could be what finally changes that. And that's why he's the MVP.