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Charles Rex Arbogast/Related Press
The eye of NFL followers is rightfully targeted on the playoffs, that are heating up this weekend with some must-watch divisional-round matchups.
However the common season will not quickly be forgotten, and that is very true for the 50 sportswriters who, on the finish of the common season, solid their votes for the Related Press NFL Most Worthwhile Participant award.
It is no shock that the award’s front-runners, Inexperienced Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, Kansas Metropolis Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Buffalo Payments quarterback Josh Allen, are nonetheless main their groups by means of the postseason. But it surely’s the physique of labor they put collectively over the 17 weeks of the difficult and sometimes weird 2020 season that can determine whether or not they deserve the league’s high honor.
There are another ability positions represented among the many MVP betting favorites; Tennessee Titans working again Derrick Henry is presently fourth, and New Orleans Saints working again Alvin Kamara and Minnesota Vikings working again Dalvin Cook dinner spherical out the highest contenders.
But when there’s one factor you possibly can depend on for this 12 months’s MVP award, it is {that a} quarterback would be the recipient.
Let’s take a better have a look at three quarterbacks who’re hoping to be topped NFL MVP on the NFL Honors ceremony on Feb. 6.
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Mike Roemer/Related Press
It is no shock Rodgers is the betting favourite for this 12 months’s MVP award. The Inexperienced Bay Packers signal-caller shattered information left and proper this season, typically even one-upping…himself.
In 2011, Rodgers put collectively the most effective particular person seasons in historical past, successful him his first of two whole NFL MVP awards. That 12 months, Rodgers performed 15 video games and amassed 4,643 yards and 45 passing touchdowns on 343 completions. He threw simply six interceptions and had a completion share of 68.3.
This 12 months, Rodgers threw for fewer yards on extra completions (maybe a byproduct of the adjustments coach Matt LaFleur has dropped at the offense), however he had 48 passing touchdowns and a mere 5 interceptions for a completion share of 70.7. After 10 years, he has change into much more correct and environment friendly, however he nonetheless posts these gaudy numbers followers have come to cherish.
By the top of the common season, all Rodgers did was lead the league in completion share, landing passes and passer score. He additionally hit main profession milestones, turning into the eleventh participant in NFL historical past with greater than 50,000 passing yards and throwing his four-hundredth landing move (to, after all, wideout Davante Adams).
We’re not evaluating 2020 Rodgers to 2011 Rodgers in assessing his MVP possibilities this 12 months, however we’re evaluating him to 2020 Mahomes and 2020 Allen. Let’s take a better have a look at how these passers stack up.
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Charlie Riedel/Related Press
With 1 / 4 or so remaining within the 2020 NFL season, you might have made a stable case that Mahomes deserved the NFL MVP award over Rodgers.
By Week 17 of the common season, nonetheless, the prevailing knowledge was that if Rodgers may lead the Packers to a win over the Chicago Bears and a 13-3 file, he was a near-lock for the award.
Chiefs proper deal with Mitchell Schwartz, nonetheless, did not like that logic. Within the last sport of the common season, Schwartz tweeted: “I like how the MVP debate is like ‘properly if Rodgers wins at the moment he’ll in all probability win it.’ Should not our man get credit score for successful a lot he does not should play at the moment?? #MVPat”
Mahomes’ stats this season: 4,740 yards, 38 passing touchdowns, six interceptions, 66.3 completion share. His whole yardage ranked second within the league; his whole passing touchdowns ranked fourth.
Whereas MVP voters should have a look at a whole physique of labor, Rodgers helped his case (and his workforce) by getting scorching to finish the season. He threw for eight touchdowns (!) in his last two video games alone, and in his final 4 video games, his score dipped beneath 100 solely as soon as.
In the meantime, in Mahomes’ last 4 video games (Weeks 13-16), he threw for eight touchdowns whole, and his passer score did not high 100 as soon as. After all, Rodgers’ worst sport (zero touchdowns and two picks in opposition to Tampa Bay in Week 6) was a lot worse than Mahomes’ worst sport (two touchdowns and three picks in opposition to Miami in Week 14). However Rodgers finally left a stronger impression on voters within the dwelling stretch of the season.
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John Munson/Related Press
Everybody anticipated Rodgers, two-time NFL MVP winner and Tremendous Bowl champion, and Mahomes, reigning Tremendous Bowl champion and 2018 NFL MVP, to be nice in 2020.
The identical is not essentially true of Allen.
After Allen’s first full 16-game season final 12 months, he confirmed promise, topping 3,000 yards and throwing 20 touchdowns to 9 interceptions, far preferable to his lopsided ratio in his rookie season (10 touchdowns, 12 interceptions).
Nonetheless, the leap he took from 12 months 2 to 12 months 3 made GM Brandon Beane and head coach Sean McDermott look terrific for sticking with him.
As Buffalo simply claimed the AFC East crown with a 13-3 file, Allen topped 4,500 yards with a whopping 37 touchdowns, practically double his 20 from 2019. His completion share jumped to 69.2. It is precisely what you need to see from a younger quarterback in a constant setting.
Allen’s season wasn’t practically as whilst Rodgers’ or Mahomes’, however like his counterpart in Inexperienced Bay, Allen completed the season scorching, tossing 11 touchdowns in his last 4 video games. He additionally sprinted out of the gate, totaling 12 touchdowns over the primary quarter of the season to only one interception for 1,326 yards. To place that into perspective, he totaled 2,074 yards in 12 video games his rookie season.
It is practically not possible that Allen would unseat Rodgers or Mahomes for this 12 months’s high honor, but when he retains taking part in like this, there might be an MVP award in his close to future.
Prediction: Rodgers by a landslide vote
All odds via OddsChecker
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