They’re off!

It’s training camp time! In fact, as I write, day one has been and gone. So, who are the runners and riders for MVP 2022?

Forgive me if it’s a QB heavy list. Ultimately, they’re the lynchpin of most of these organisations, to the point that since 2000 only three men who don’t play Quarterback have secured the MVP title. All of which were Running Backs (Tomlinson 2006, Alexander 2005 and Faulk 2000).

Out in front

Josh Allen

The man is a giant, playing on a win-now roster with arm talent, pocket awareness, speed, agility, strength and size-advantages over most of his fellow QBs. He has come back from the off season looking like a raging bull of a man. What’s not to love?!

He’s my (and shock horror) the bookies big favourite to snag the MVP title this season. Part of this comes down to the potential the Bills have when it comes to securing titles this year. They’re favourites for a reason. The roster is stacked front to back with talent and Allen is the man who can get the most out of it.

For a team that went to four successive Superbowls in the 90s and came away empty handed each time, 2022 is the year to end the heartache.

Rating: 9/10 – bring it home.

Patrick Mahomes

Since erupting onto the scene in 2018 Mahomes has been the single most dynamic QB of recent years. His ability to make something of nothing is remarkable. His arm is like a bazooka rocket launcher. And his toughness is next level.

But what does that mean when you loose your star wide out receiver? Seeing Tyreek Hill go down to Miami has left Patrick Mahomes II with a gaping hole that the Chiefs have aimed to fill with JuJu Smith-Schuster and Marquez Valdes-Scantling.

Sure, MVS has got some pretty serious wheels and works as a downfield threat but Hill’s ability to make players miss was other-worldly whilst he sported a Chiefs jersey. Did Tyreek’s talent buff Mahomes skills to a fine polish or cover up some cracks? He has a tendency to scramble when his first read is taken away, this year will tell us a lot about the direction Mr Mahomes trip to Canton takes.

Rating: 8/10 – he’s still got it, right?

Ahead of the pack

Aaron Rodgers

Back-to-back two-time MVP in 2020 and 2021, picked up his fourth award last season. How can he not be in the top two of this list? Because this writer feels that his get-out-of-jail for the last two seasons is going to make a big impact on the way Rodgers must play his game.

On the one hand, Rodgers has consistently improved every player he has thrown to over the past I-can’t-even-count-how-many seasons, and if history has anything to say about it, he’ll do it again. Is the fire still there? Will the Bears and Lions roll over like they have in the most recent seasons? Maybe…

Rating: 7/10 – Threepeat? Surely not…

Justin Herbert

In the most mind-blowingly competitive QB division we have the standout QB from the 2020 class. Sure, he was lucky to get his start after what happened to Tyrod but he grabbed that opportunity with both hands. The team look genuinely dangerous, he has an incredible pool of talent to throw at and I have, probably wrongly, picked them for the division title in my accumulator (Parlee for anyone from North America reading this) bet.

I genuinely believe that they’re THAT good. He is THAT good. He has look unflappable in his first two years and I really think he can put it on the line again.

Rating: 8/10 – Herbert by name, He-man by nature.

Joe Burrow

One of the most astounding runs last season took them all the way to the final play. Some say it was a mediocre O-Line that was largely the difference between coming home with a ring and not. Well, the Bengals have spent some time and money bringing in some support for their face of the franchise with Ted Karras, Alex Cappa and La’el Collins all joining the Cincinnati outfit.

Between Tee Higgins and Ja’Marr Chase, the Bengals have probably the best wide-out duo  in the league (with Tyler Boyd in support) and bringing in Hayden Hurst following the exit of CJ Ozomah can’t have damaged the teams potential.

He’s not the biggest guy so keeping him protected and healthy will be the key to Burrow’s MVP run but I like his chances.

Rating 8/10 – Keep that repaired knee pointing in the right direction and this guy could have it.

In with a chance

Lamar Jackson

MVP in your second year as a starter is some feat. Lamar Jackson is the absolute epitome of dual-threat QB. But the team is a year older. The receiver corp are definitely no better than they were a year ago. OK, Mark Andrews is worth at least 1.5 guys. But after that you’re hurling spirals to Rashod Bateman and Devin Duvernay and I don’t feel great about this.

Their council of running back talent does help but if you’re restricted to a run-first offence then surely, it’s only a matter of time before you’re found out. Lamar has the talent and John Harbaugh is a brilliantly skilled coach but my fear is his potential for the award will be restricted by those around him and the highly competitive AFC North.

Rating: 6/10 – Whether or not this man is MVP for 2022 just GET HIM PAID!

Matthew Stafford

You win a ring, you’re in with a shout of this award, right? Sure, you’re in with a shout. But Matthew Stafford is part of a machine at LA. It’s great to see some of his talent unlocked by a roster worth of his arm talent and on-field marshalling of the game, not to mention being able to team up with probably the best young coach in the league and a management team not afraid to tie their colours to the ‘f*** the picks’ mast and just go balls-to-the-wall for more titles but is it enough to see the award land at his feet?

I like the pickup of Allen Robinson to try and take pressure off Cooper Kupp this season. Hopefully if the RB room can stay a bit healthier this year, then there will be greater support for the former Lion. MVP couldn’t go to a more deserving servant of the game. But they don’t hand it out for turning up.

Rating: 7/10 – Just purely because f*** the picks.

Tom Brady

Can’t have a list of the most valuable individuals in the game without including Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. The guy is seemingly unstoppable. He’s going to be 45 years old this season. FORTY FIVE YEARS OLD. The man is clearly a Terminator, sent from the future to make us mere mortals look bad. Physically incapable of being held back from his prime directive to absolutely annihilate the competition.

But, in the instance that he is not a cyborg from the future, father time will have to catch up with Mr Brady eventually. I think it might be this year. He managed a frankly pathetic attempt at retirement during the off-season but this must be his last hurrah. The team are aging all over the place and whilst they’re still an exceptionally capable set, time makes fools of us all.

Do it for us greying, mid-riff expanding, middle-aged couch coaches, Brady.

Rating: 6/10 – Of course he’s the GOAT but I don’t want to see him turned into a cheap meal by young bucks.

Unlikely at best

Trey Lance

I thought we’d see more of Lance last season. The way Kyle Shanahan and the team talked about him following the draft was with doe-eyed wonder. But Jimmy G remained at the helm of the 49ers offence for the majority of last season. And why not? He was getting paid some serious dollar to do so and Shanahan and the team must have felt it was in Trey Lance’s best interests to learn from a veteran rather than dive into last years hyper competitive NFC West rubbing shoulders against ever present Russell Wilson, a rejuvenated Matt Stafford and a Kyler Murray that spent the first half of the season carving up opposition.

But Shanahan has already told us that now it’s time for Trey, there is no second guessing this line up this year. If Trey can live up to expectations, he’s a hyper mobile mortar bombing QB machine. Yet, it’s all hot air until we see it in person. The rest of the roster is pretty much there at the win-no stage and the 49ers have been to two Championships (winning one) and a Superbowl in three years.

Sure the window might be closing on the 49ers championship potential. But Trey Lance might be the guy to take you there.

Rating: 5/10 – He could hook it up.

Russell Wilson

New team, new roster, new coach, new playbook. Russell Wilson is an all-star attraction in the world of the NFL but can he translate that skill into a totally new franchise? I’m going to go out on a limb and say, “not this year”. There is no doubt that he is good enough but for the MVP award to land at your doorstep, you’ve got to be clicking seamlessly with your team. There’s a whiff of maybe there but if I was putting pennies on this, it wouldn’t be on Wilson.

Rating: 4/10 – Next season.

Dak Prescott

I think Dak is a superb QB. He doesn’t seem to lack anything, but he’s been a nearly man practically every seasons since he became the starter in 2016. No doubt exceptional but just missing that fine edge that takes a player from exceptional to supreme.

He came back strong last season after reconstructive surgery, but the Cowboys play in what is surely still the weakest division in football and haven’t made it to a Championship game in the time that Dak has been the on-field leader despite making the playoff berth on three occasions in that time.

Rating: 4/10 – I want him to take that next step, but I don’t believe it’s there, not this year.

Coming from behind

Kyler Murray

Murray started off last season absolutely lights out. He was QB1 on a lot of people’s power rankings list and rightly so. But he faded so badly over the season and seemingly picked up quite a serious knock. The guy is not a big fella and, in a league, where the hits don’t get any bigger than this, that can be a problem.

He has a cannon-like arm and absolutely next generation scramble skills. But he’ll be missing Nuke for the first few games of 2022 and that’s going to hurt him and his MVP chances.

At least he got his payday because nothing is worse than watching NFL talent fade out because of arguments involving money (see the Lev Bell debacle). Lastly, Cliff Kingsbury has got to learn how to keep it fresh to stop the stagnation that we’ve seen during the last two seasons.

Rating: 4/10 – He’s got the talent, but has he got the team?

Derek Carr

Man, I feel for Derek Carr. There are a few divisions in the NFL where Carr would be competing for best-in-division for sure but the AFC West is lights out. Mahomes, Herbert, Wilson… Carr.

The franchise seemed to settle well in Vegas last year and Derek Carr was for sure the best version of himself that we’ve ever seen but is he really capable of turning it on for seventeen games? I would love to see it but I’d also love to see my bank account break four figures on the regular.

Rating: 3/10 – Love the guy but sorry, Derek. Prove me wrong!

Deshaun Watson

Talented? Absolutely. Divisive? Most certainly.

I didn’t like the moral sell-out that we saw in Cleveland that brough the sports (currently) most vilified player to the team, but you can’t deny the ambition it showed and also perhaps the lack of awareness that it demonstrated.

This isn’t an article about morals. However, if he’s going to sit a large part of the (potentially the entire) season then he has little or no hope of being the difference maker that the MVP entails.

Rating: 1/10

What are you on about?

I’m going to lump these guys together as I’ve seen their names put up there:

• Jonathan Taylor
• Derrick Henry
• Cooper Kupp

All three of these guys are generational positional talents or are on the road to proving themselves to be just that. However, there is so much depth at quarterback at the moment that unless one of them has a 3000-yard season I just can’t see it.

I think the Jonathan Taylor / Matt Ryan combo could be absolutely deadly and my brother-in-law would love to see JT take ‘the next step’ which is incredible for a guy who just absolutely annihilated the franchise record for rushing yards.

Derrick Henry is the king for a reason. Because he is built of bricks and can literally trample men but I’m worried about his health after last season.

Cooper Kupp, I mean, if you can’t win it after the triple crown effort last year then when are you getting it?!

Justin Fields

Someone said that Fields was looking like an early outside favourite for MVP. I just wanted to tack on to the end of this article that I find that laughable. I have no doubt this guy’s heart is game for the fight. But he just hasn’t got the supporting cast to support a MVP candidacy race.

Rating 0/10 – The Bears are somewhere in the bottom rank of rosters this year. Unfortunately, I think we will see Fields take an absolute roasting again.