With just a handful of weeks remaining in the NFL‘s regular season, the race for the league’s MVP award appears to be over, barring something catastrophic, of course.
But before we get to the contenders and the surefire favourite to walk away with the 2020 honour, can you believe the last time a non-quarterback won the National Football League’s MVP award was in 2012?
That’s the year then-Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson challenged Eric Dickerson’s single-season rushing record of 2,105 yards, set in 1984.
Peterson finished that season with 2,097 rushing yards, averaging an insanely high six yards per carry.
This year, unless a player like Tennessee Titans running back Derrick Henry or current Vikings RB Dalvin Cook goes on an epic tear, the MVP award will again go to a quarterback.
With a league-leading 3,035 passing yards along with 27 touchdowns and only two interceptions, Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes is the clear-cut favourite to win his second MVP.
Plus, K.C. is 9-1 this year and looks poised to repeat as Super Bowl champions.
Russell Wilson of the 7-3 Seattle Seahawks, who leads all QBs with 30 touchdown passes, is second on my list, followed by Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers (29 touchdowns, four interceptions), who has guided the Packers to a 7-3 record at this point as well.
There are four other candidates: two grisly, Super Bowl-winning veterans in Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger (24 TDs, 5 INT), Tampa Bay’s Tom Brady (23 TDs, 7 INT) and two up-and-coming stars in Arizona’s Kyler Murray (19 TDs, 3 INT, 10 rushing TDs) and Buffalo’s Josh Allen (21 TDs, 7 INT).
The one thing that separates Mahomes from the pack is that he is the best overall quarterback in a QB-driven league and his late-game heroics to help K.C. stage a come-from-behind victory over Las Vegas on Sunday night were just another example of how unstoppable he is.
Rick Zamperin is the assistant program, news and senior sports director at Global News Radio 900 CHML.
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