Sites for betting favour Green Bay Packers starting quarterback Aaron Rodgers to, for the third time in his career, win the National Football League Most Valuable Player Award. According to the WaPo’s Rick Maese, Rodgers “can see the future” because he “knows what the opposing safety is thinking.” uh, rick, that would actually be mind-reading, not precognition. Nevertheless, Rodgers’s undeniable mental acuity, which makes him one of the most quick-on-his-feet signal-callers in the league, is right on par with his physical shape. “I feel like every year he comes back and he’s in better shape than he was the year before,” tackle Bryan Bulaga said of his teammate.
Other candidates include the following:
Tom Brady
The Pats QB just published a new book called The TB12 Method which, sadly, is not a science fiction yarn set in a post-apocalyptic world, starring Brady himself as a state-of-the-art robot from the future. How is it? Don’t know; haven’t read it. But according to ESPN staff writer Mike Reiss, who, presumably, did read it, Brady says he threw the ball better in 2016 than any year of his career. Perhaps Brady will, in the sequel, admit that he never threw it worse than on the 2017 NFL Kickoff Game. Sites for betting shouldn’t rule him out, though; he is, in spite, or rather, because of that piss-poor performance, even more of a favourite to come to put on MVP-level performances in the 15 weeks to come.
Derek Carr
The Raiders quarterback is “becoming a more accomplished player at that position,” former Oakland QB Rich Gannon recently The Greg Papa Show on 95.7 The Game. “The anticipation continues to get better. I just think his overall command of the offense — you see him at the line of scrimmage, changing protections and plays and things like that.” Gannon, coincidentally, was, in 2002, the last Raider to have been named league MVP. Does Carr have it in him to bring the award back to Oakland? Perhaps not quite, not yet, but more than likely, in the near future, he will.
Matt Stafford
The Fan Rag said, before the season started, that Stafford “is on the cusp of stardom.” Could he be, also, on the cusp of his first NFL MVP award? The Detroit Lions quarterback certainly deserves some kind of award for making ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith look like, well, what he is.
Dak Prescott
We don’t, says Sports Illustrated, know how good the Dallas QB is. The question is, is he, or will he be, good enough to be Most Valuable Player Award? He already won AP NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year Pepsi NFL Rookie of the Year, but, as logic dictates, he can’t win either again. He has, on the other hand, the rest of his career to make MVP.
Russell Wilson
Could the Seahawks’ Wilson win the MVP award? With another team, yes, he might, perhaps sites for betting would give him better odds. But the ‘Hawks, as Forbes contributor Vincent Frank writes, in particular general manager John Schneider and head coach Pete Carroll, continue to fail to provide “Wilson with the offensive line support he needs to help lead the Seahawks back to the Super Bowl.” And himself, maybe, to an MVP trophy?