The Most Valuable Player (MVP) award is the most coveted trophy awarded in all sports. Every league has an MVP award given to whom the voters believe was the most valuable player of that season.
To be able to achieve this you must carry your team game in and game out and push through obstacles to make your team successful.
This year in the National Football League (NFL) the award has come down to three players; Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, and Saquon Barkley.
The ladder is putting up absolutely historic numbers, as he is currently on pace to break Eric Dickerson’s rushing yards record and Chris Johnson’s Scrimmage yards records.
His team, the Philadelphia Eagles, are also tied for the third-best record at 10-2 so Saquon’s success has led to a lot of team success for them on top of his individual stats.
Despite this, he is a running back, and his success is very reliant on having an offensive line to open holes to run through and the Eagles may have the best offensive line in the league, making it a bit harder for him to win the award.
Lamar Jackson won the MVP award last year and is looking to win it again as he is having an even better season this year with some crazy numbers. Jackson currently has 32 touchdowns to only six turnovers and is leading the league in total yards.
Further, he is very efficient as well, as he is not atop the league in pass attempts. This has led to a lot of offensive success for his team the Baltimore Ravens, with the team statistically having one of the greatest offensive seasons of all time. The team also has a pretty good record of 8-5 and can still win the division and get the three seed in this years playoffs.
However, Lamar is having all of this success with Derrick Henry who’s been the second-best RB in football (behind Saquon), Zay Flowers, who has been one of the best wide receivers in football, and Isaiah Likely and Mark Andrews, who are the best Tight End duo in the league that complement each other very well.
So despite the crazy numbers Lamar is putting up, it can be largely attributed to the team around him as well. This is evident when you see the teams record, as if lamar hadn’t faltered in some close games that led to losses, the team might have been better. Because of this, it may be hard for him to get out of the hole he’s dug recently and win the award.
Then there is Josh Allen. Allen was voted the most overrated player in the league in the offseason, and even the media were saying the Bills were going to take a step back and that people were going to find out that Stefon Diggs made Josh Allen. Everyone said the Bills championship window had closed.
However, Allen had other plans, as despite the loss of his top two receivers from last season, Allen has carried the Bills to their best start in his career as they are now 10-2 with signature wins over the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers in back-to-back games.
He has great numbers to back it up as well, recording 27 touchdowns and only seven turnovers so far this season.
The offense has been electric, scoring at least 30 points in every game since week seven and have 30 points nine times this year.
He’s doing this with not a single pro bowl level skill position player as well (outside maybe Amari Cooper who he’s only played four games with).
While running back James Cook is not terrible, he certainly isn’t Derrick Henry either. Further, Flowers is better than Khalil Shakir, and Dalton Kincaid has battled injuries at tight end.
Josh also has had multiple MVP moments with a 26-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-two to clinch their win against the then undefeated Kansas City Chiefs, and this past week threw a pass to Amari Cooper who then lateraled it back to Josh Allen who ran it in for a touchdown in the snow.
There is still five more weeks left in the season, but Josh Allen is slowly becoming the big favorite as he currently sits at –190 odds to win MVP with Saquon at +420 and Lamar at +950 (Via FanDuel).
If Allen can go into Detroit in two weeks and win that game and get the one seed in the AFC the award will be his. However, if the Bills faulter down the stretch, the door could be open for the other two contenders to steal the trophy.
