Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is entering Week 16 as a slight underdog to Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes for NFL MVP.
Well, at least according to a bunch of NFL executives.
Tom Pelissero of NFL Network took a poll of 22 high-ranking NFL decision-makers, and Mahomes received slightly more votes (13) than Rodgers (8).
Keep in mind: NFL executives don’t vote for the award. A collection of 50 voters from the Associated Press decide the MVP. But Pelissero’s poll could shed a light on the national view of the race, which appears to be a two-player showdown between Rodgers and Mahomes.
With two games to go, Rodgers leads the NFL in touchdown passes (40), passer rating (118.0), touchdown percentage (8.4) and interception percentage (0.8) for the 11-3 Packers, while Mahomes leads the NFL in passing yards (4,462) for the 13-1 Chiefs. Both offenses rank in the top five in most important statistical categories.
Voters will have to weigh a number of factors, including individual impact and value, to pick a winner between Rodgers and Mahomes. And as always, the MVP narrative can shift drastically week to week, even late in the year.
Rodgers and the Packers finish the season with a primetime game against the Tennessee Titans on Sunday night and a visit to Chicago to play the Bears, potentially providing two opportunities to impress voters and pass up Mahomes, who plays the Atlanta Falcons and Los Angeles Chargers to wrap up his season.
Rodgers, now 37, is attempting to win his third MVP award and his first since the 2014 season.
“There’s not many guys who have won three, so that would definitely mean a lot,” Rodgers said earlier this month.
If he wins, he’ll join Peyton Manning (5), Tom Brady (3), Johnny Unitas (3), Jim Brown (3) and Brett Favre (3) among the players with three or more MVPs in a career.
Mahomes won his first MVP in 2018. He would join Rodgers, Joe Montana, Steve Young and Kurt Warner as the five players with exactly two MVPs if he wins this year.
Regardless of who wins, an MVP-quality quarterback having an incredible season for an incredible team is going to lose out on the award.
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