10 favorites to win the NFL MVP Award in the 2016-17 season

Ranking the10 players most likely to win the NFL MVP Award in the upcoming season.

The NFL regular-season opener, a Super Bowl 50 rematch that sees the Carolina Panthers visit the Denver Broncos, is on the horizon. But it’s simply not getting here fast enough to satisfy our collective football hunger.

Organized team activities (OTAs) begin in late May and training camps open in July. That’s followed by the five-week preseason, which kicks off Sunday, Aug. 7 with the Hall of Fame game between the Green Bay Packers and Indianapolis Colts.

Over the next three months, hundreds of NFL players will be injured, traded, released, demoted and promoted; thousands of fantasy football drafts will be held across the country; and countless predictions will be made by media experts and fans alike.

So … why wait any longer? Now is as good a time as any to open up a healthy debate about the NFL MVP race.

Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton won the award last season with 48 of the 50 votes (New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and Arizona Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer each received one vote). Can Newton repeat as MVP? Certainly he can, but history says the odds are against him.

There have only been four players to win consecutive MVPs — Jim Brown in 1957 and 1958; Joe Montana in 1989 and 1990; Brett Favre in 1995, 1996 and 1997; and Peyton Manning in 2003 and 2004, and again in 2008 and 2009.

A quarterback and/or running back has won the award every season since 1987. New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor (1986) was the last non-quarterback/running back to win.

So let’s open this debate up, shall we? Here are the top 10 candidates for the 2016-17 NFL MVP Award.

Next: No. 10: Von Miller