We’re officially five weeks through the 2025 NFL season, and there’s been a bit of a shakeup in the MVP race. Prior to the start of the year, Lamar Jackson was favored to take home the third of his eight-year career, but after a series of unlikely performances from other signal callers, as well as an untimely hamstring injury, that narrative ended before it even truly started.
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Heading into Week 6, it is none other than the reigning MVP, Josh Allen, who is now favored to win this year’s honors. Seeing as the Buffalo Bills are currently tied for the best record in all of football, as well as the fact that Allen is sporting one of the lowest interception percentages in the league, perhaps that’s no surprise.
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What may shock some, however, is Baker Mayfield having the third-shortest MVP odds of any player in the league. Second only to the aforementioned Allen and Patrick Mahomes, the late bloomer is currently averaging more than 256 passing yards and two passing touchdowns per game.
He’s got the Buccaneers poised to win their fifth consecutive NFC South title, which would be a historic one in terms of the division. Considering the lackluster status of both the New Orleans Saints and the Carolina Panthers, as well as the recent performances of the Atlanta Falcons, it certainly seems as if that will end up being the case.
From there, the next closest players are Matthew Stafford and Jordan Love, who are both sporting MVP odds of +1200 (bet $100 to win $1,200). Both of them have managed to make their respective teams two of the most feared match-ups in all of the NFC, with each of them having its own reasons to believe that they could somehow win the Super Bowl this year.
And then there’s Jared Goff, the man who is responsible for the horsepower behind the Detroit Lions’ offense. Throughout the first five weeks, no unit has scored more points than they have, a stat that is reflected by Goff’s league-leading completion rate and touchdown count.
Although there is one more surprise, and that’s the exclusion of Dak Prescott. The Dallas Cowboys as a whole have been anything but stellar this year, but Prescott has seemingly picked right back up from where he left off in 2023.
He’s currently leading the NFL when it comes to pass attempts, pass completions, passing first downs, and he even has a quarterback rating of 76.5. Nevertheless, a 2-2-1 record isn’t very appealing to MVP voters, who have, at times, seemingly valued wins over any other statistic, or at least when it’s convenient to do so anyways.
Simply put, Prescott is going to have to wrangle up some wins if he wants a realistic shot at winning his first award since his 2022 Walter Payton Man of the Year award. Thankfully, for both him and the rest of us, there’s plenty of football to go.
