Matthew Stafford had been the favorite to win the 2025 NFL MVP trophy for a few weeks now. Going into Week 17 weekend, he was the comfortable favorite. But you know what they say: NFL stands for “Not For Long.”
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Stafford and the New England Patriots second-year QB Drake Maye have now swapped positions. But Maye, who had another pristine performance in pushing his team’s record to 13-3 with a win in Week 17, didn’t take over the “favorite” mantle until early on Monday night. That’s when Stafford was having his three-interception nightmare in a shock loss to the Atlanta Falcons.
Stafford not only had a bad individual game but also lost the game, dropping his team to 11-5, which hurt his MVP chances by double. Back when he had no three-interception games on the year, and his team was in the discussion for earning the No. 1 seed in the NFC, he had a great case. But now, it seems the MVP race is all but over. Emmanuel Acho certainly thinks so.
“I’m gonna be honest. As an MVP voter right now, we have to look at things with a very, very keen eye. And we have to look at things from week-to-week. Matthew Stafford sold this game. Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise. There were turnovers going back the other way that got called back by the way. He sold this game. He sold the Carolina Panthers game,” Acho said on Speakeasy.
And usually, we would say, “Who the heck even cares what Acho thinks?” But in this instance, we kind of have to care what he thinks because Acho somehow got credentialed as one of the official 49 voters on the Associated Press’ end-of-season NFL awards.
Get fired from your FS1 show, start a bad podcast, be loud, and somehow still keep AP voting credentials. Go figure.
But we must say that despite what we think of Acho overall, he is correct here. Stafford had a chance to cement himself as the MVP on Monday night with a big game. Even if his team does finish as a Wild Card, it would be hard to fault Stafford for that if his team finished with 13 wins.
Drake Maye, in stark contrast to Stafford, put up 256 yards and five touchdowns in Week 17. He completed 90.5 percent of his passes and posted a near-perfect 157.0 passer rating in a confident 42-10 win. Maye is now a massive -450 odds favorite to win MVP. Stafford trails at +325 as the only other player with a realistic shot.
Now, short of some insane four-interception game against the Miami Dolphins in Week 18, Maye should have his first NFL MVP wrapped up in his second season. And just six years after Tom Brady‘s departure.
Patriots fans truly are the most spoiled beings on the planet.
