Could six-touchdown day vault Alvin Kamara into offensive player of the year contention?

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Running back Alvin Kamara‘s historic Christmas Day performance against the Vikings will surely secure the NFC offensive player of the week award (unless someone else scores seven touchdowns), and it could make him the NFC’s offensive player of the month. Will it be enough to make him the offensive player of the year?

It won’t be easy, given the way Titans running back Derrick Henry has performed this season.

Kamara has 932 rushing yards, 756 receiving yards, and 21 total touchdowns. Henry, however, has nearly as many rushing yards as Kamara has yards from scrimmage (1,679 versus 1,688). And Henry has two games left to play.

Even Vikings running back Dalvin Cook has generated significantly more yards from scrimmage than Kamara, with 1,918. Cook also has a shot at 2,000 total yards, if he plays in a meaningless Week 17 game against the Lions (he shouldn’t).

Then there’s Patrick Mahomes, who has a shot a his second 5,000-yard passing season in three years. Already an MVP finalist, Mahomes could up end winning both, like he did in 2018.

Kamara has one more chance to get everyone’s attention against the Panthers next Sunday. If the Packers lose to the Titans and the Saints still have a shot at the No. 1 seed, Kamara will have every reason to go all out, like he did against the Vikings. Another huge performance, coming only days before the votes are cast, could be enough.

That said, even if there’s a gap between Henry and Kamara and Cook and Kamara when it comes to looking at the full season of running back play, shouldn’t Kamara doing something that hadn’t happened since 1965 become a major factor? He scored six touchdowns in one game. That previously had happened three times in nearly 101 season of NFL football.

It’s significant. Extremely significant. Perhaps significant enough given the platform and the stakes to make Kamara the NFL’s offensive player of the year.