NFL MVP is a three-player race through Week 10, but there are five players with an outside shot at stealing MVP
Andrew Luck, DeMarco Murray, and Peyton Manning, in some order, have led the NFL Most Valuable Player race for the entire season.
Since Week 1, Luck, Murray, and Manning established their dominance and have been virtually unstoppable the entire season.
Peyton Manning
| Year | G | QBrec | Cmp | Att | Cmp% | Yds | TD | Int | Rate | QBR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 9 | 7-2-0 | 239 | 353 | 67.7 | 2912 | 29 | 7 | 112.0 | 84.69 |
Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table Generated 11/10/2014.
Andrew Luck
| Year | G | QBrec | Cmp | Att | Cmp% | Yds | TD | Int | Rate | QBR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 9 | 6-3-0 | 250 | 393 | 63.6 | 3085 | 26 | 9 | 100.3 | 72.89 |
Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table Generated 11/10/2014.
DeMarco Murray
| Games | Rushing | Receiving | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | G | Att | Yds | TD | Y/A | Y/G | Rec | Yds | Y/R | TD |
| 2014 | 10 | 244 | 1233 | 7 | 5.1 | 123.3 | 36 | 281 | 7.8 | 0 |
Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table Generated 11/10/2014.
While I expect one of these three players will win the NFL MVP award, there’s still seven more games in the regular season.
As we saw yesterday with Carson Palmer’s season-ending ACL injury, everything can change with one awkward step.
The MVP race is still wide-open, but the field is narrowing every week.
Early in the season, it looked like J.J. Watt might have a chance to be the first defensive player to win MVP since Lawrence Taylor won the award in 1986. Watt’s “Hungry Eyes” haven’t looked as hungry in the last few weeks and the rest of the widened their lead.
While I’m on the subject, can someone please make a J.J. Watt highlight video to the “Hungry Eyes” from Dirty Dancing and send it to me. I’ll include it in my next NFL column, I promise.
Other than Watt, though, there have been few challengers for MVP.
It’s just been that kind of a season in the NFL, and right now, there’s five darkhorse candidates on the outside looking in at the MVP picture. Depending on how the next seven weeks go, there’s a strong possibility they could emerge as a real threat to the MVP crown.
SPOILER ALERT: All five players are quarterbacks.
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