NFL MVP favorites Matthew Stafford, Drake Maye, Jordan Love and Josh Allen have combined for 166 rushes — excluding kneeldowns and aborted plays — and scrambles this season.
Stafford has five of them.
Two of those Stafford runs were quarterback sneaks. Neither was successful. His three scrambles have totaled 11 yards.
The Los Angeles Rams’ quarterback, who turns 38 in February, is a throwback to a time when dual-threat QBs were the exception. Stafford enters Week 15 as the MVP betting favorite, narrowly ahead of Maye. We examine the case for each player in the video above. If Stafford wins the award, he could be the last of his kind to do so (Tom Brady was the last truly immobile QB to win it, in 2017).
Stafford would also enhance his credentials in another area. He has a prime opportunity over the next month-plus to help his case for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Stafford is already among the NFL’s all-time top-10 in compiling stats (eighth in yards, ninth in touchdowns). He won a Super Bowl with the Rams and recently climbed above .500 for his career, putting distance between himself and some rough years for team success in Detroit.
But with only two Pro Bowl selections before this season and only one season in which he commanded an MVP vote (2023), his resume is light on individual honors.
Would winning MVP put him over the top?
Thirteen quarterbacks in league history have won MVP honors and won at least one Super Bowl as a starter.
Ten of the 13 are already in the Hall: Peyton Manning, Kurt Warner, Brett Favre, Steve Young, Joe Montana, John Elway, Terry Bradshaw, Ken Stabler, Bart Starr and Johnny Unitas.
Three others are surely Canton-bound: Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady.
Stafford would join those ranks if he won MVP. If he could win MVP and win a second Super Bowl, he’d join an even shorter list with Manning, Montana, Elway, Bradshaw, Starr, Mahomes and Brady. They are the only MVP quarterbacks with multiple Super Bowl wins as a starter (Earl Morrall won an MVP and won Super Bowls as a backup, losing his only Super Bowl start).
It’s going to be a fun finish to watch, starting Sunday when Stafford faces his former team, the Lions.
