My criteria have changed quite a bit and lurking around seeing the talk about awards and stats, I thought I'd post.
What matters
Playoff Winning
Regular Season Winning
Leading top offenses
Clutch performance/performance in big games, moments, drives
What doesn't matter
Accolades. These are an absolute joke across all sports. There are countless examples of voters getting them completely wrong. I don't know if they're stupid or biased. Probably both.
Stats. I put a tiny bit more stock in these, but not much. Like accolades, they're a joke for the most part. Manning, Brees, and Rodgers all average more touchdowns than Brady. Yet Brady has consistently led better offenses than all of them. Letting your running back do most of the work until you get to the goal line then throwing it in means nothing to me. It just shows you care about your stats too much. I'd also like to point out that TD% is one of the worst stats in all of football.
Rodgers is the worst offender when it comes to this. The expert at manipulating his touchdowns and passer rating.
111/624 or 17.79% of Brady's touchdown passes are 1-3 yards.
91/449 or 20.27% of Rodgers touchdown passes are 1-3 yards.