Tag: 2022 NFL MVP

The Associated Press (AP) released their finalists for its eight major regular season awards, including most valuable player, defensive player of the year and offensive/defensive player of the year. The nominees are roughly who you’d expect: a smattering a superstars who impacted the game across nearly five months of games to make their teams better.

While we already know who AP voters chose to fill up their All-Pro teams, we’ll have to wait until Super Bowl week to find out this year’s individual award winners. Those won’t go live until the league’s NFL Honors show in primetime February 9.

This, of course, doesn’t prevent us from speculating. We all pretty much know who this season’s MVP is going to be thanks to Patrick Mahomes’ stellar play and Jalen Hurts’ late-season injury. We’ve got a pretty good idea on the other awards, too. But there’s room for debate.

Let’s do that. Our picks prognosticators: Christian D’Andrea, Charles Curtis and Robert Zeglinski will once again steam into the breach to be kinda right about NFL stuff. Their predictions follow, but if you want Christian’s full Pro Football Writers Association ballot for their awards, you can find that here.

Two quarterbacks have stood above the fray when it comes to passing stats in 2022. According to sportsbooks, they also stand alone with it comes to this year’s NFL MVP Award odds.

Kansas City Chiefs star Patrick Mahomes, with the legacy of a past award and a Super Bowl trophy on his resume, currently stands as frontrunner with a +125 return on his MVP future. Miami Dolphins starter Tua Tagovailoa, a player whose future in south Florida was in question coming into the season, stands at +350. Jalen Hurts and Josh Allen are also in consideration, but neither have the short odds of the quarterbacks in charge of the AFC’s top two teams.

There are still eight weeks left in the 2022 NFL season, which leaves plenty of times for hot starts to fizzle and new contenders to emerge for the most prestigious regular season honor in the game. We don’t know what those final two months will hold, but we do know how we got here.

Looking back at that path, who should be 2022’s MVP?

The NFL MVP award is, for all intents and purposes, a quarterback’s award. It’s been nine years since anyone other than a passer was deemed the league’s Most Valuable Player. With passing offenses more important than ever, it would take a superhuman performance from a running back or wide receiver or pass rusher to sway voters to their side.

That narrows down 2022’s candidate list. While Tyreek Hill and Justin Jefferson have both been great, it’s a longshot either would be able to rage their way into serious consideration for the award while a handful of quarterbacks are absolutely cooking behind center. This fall has been the backdrop to some notable fades — Matthew Stafford, Aaron Rodgers and Dak Prescott foremost among them — but the league’s best teams have been powered by high octane aerial attacks.

Knowing that, we can narrow this year’s field down to a handful of quarterbacks who’ve been difference makers for teams in contention. After 10 weeks, here’s how the MVP race is shaping up in my eyes.