The battle for the league’s MVP remains a two-man race between Drake Maye and Matthew Stafford. However, the NFL’s reigning MVP will have something to say about who claims the award during the final month of the season.
Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen had one of his best performances of the year in a comeback victory over the Cincinnati Bengals. Allen completed 22 of 28 passes (78.6%) for 251 yards, three touchdowns and zero interceptions at home in the falling snow. He also ran 78 yards, including a 40-yard scramble for a score.
Winners of three of their last four games, the 9-4 Bills will travel to Foxborough to take on the 11-2 New England Patriots, led by Maye, on Sunday with a chance to keep the AFC East race alive.
Allen is tied for fifth in passing touchdowns (22), sixth in passer rating (102.9) and eighth in passing yards (3,083). But he’s also been the most dangerous quarterback running the football this season. Allen leads all quarterbacks in rushing yards (487) and rushing touchdowns (12).
With 22 touchdown passes and 12 rushing touchdowns, Allen is the first player in league history with at least 20 touchdown passes and 10 rushing touchdowns in at least three seasons. Allen also has 50 career games with both a rushing and passing touchdown, the most in NFL history.
The struggles of some of the top quarterbacks in the game, like Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow, have left the door open for Allen and the Bills to chase a Super Bowl. And as he did last week against the Bengals, Allen will need more Superman-type performances for Buffalo to have a chance to make a Super Bowl run this season.
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Allen’s MVP odds jumped from +2500 last week to +1500 this week, via DraftKings Sportsbook. Matthew Stafford retook the top spot after a bounce-back performance in an easy victory over the Arizona Cardinals in Week 13 and now sits at -180.
Maye dropped back to the second spot at +200, followed by Jordan Love (+1000) and Allen. Dak Prescott fell all the way down to +7500 after the Dallas Cowboys’ loss to the Detroit Lions. Jonathan Taylor and Jaxon Smith-Njigba are the highest-ranked non-quarterbacks at +15000.
Let’s take a deeper dive into my top five in Week 14.
5. Jordan Love, QB, Green Bay Packers (Last week: Unranked)
In a heavyweight, NFC North battle against the Chicago Bears, Love had one of his best games of the season, completing 17 of 25 passes for 234 yards, with three long touchdown passes of 45, 41 and 23 yards. Love averaged 9.4 yards per attempt. Love completed 8 of 11 passes for 126 yards and two touchdowns, recording a season-high 63.6% success rate vs the blitz, per Next Gen Stats.
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One of the improvements Love has made in his three years as the starter for Green Bay is curbing turnovers. After two years with double-digit interceptions, Love has just four picks this year.
Odds to win MVP: +1000
Garrett upped his league-leading sack total to 20 with a QB takedown in a loss to the Tennessee Titans. Garrett now needs three sacks over the next four games to eclipse the 22.5 sack record held by Michael Strahan and T.J. Watt.
However, Garrett had just one pressure, as the Titans did their best to try and limit the damage created by the best pass rusher in the game. Garrett’s 4.2% pressure rate against the Titans is tied for his lowest in a game this season, matching his one pressure on 24 pass rushes in Week 7 against the Dolphins, per Next Gen Stats.
Odds to win MVP: +30000
3. Josh Allen, QB, Buffalo Bills (Last week: Unranked)
For Allen, the last four weeks of the regular season are winning time. Last season, Allen finished with 18 total touchdowns and just one turnover in the month of December. As a team, the Bills averaged 38 points per game and went 4-1 in December.
Allen had 40 total touchdowns in 2024, finishing with 531 rushing yards and 12 rushing touchdowns last season, and is headed on a similar trajectory starting the month of December this year.
Odds to win MVP: +1500
2. Drake Maye, QB, New England Patriots (Last week: No. 1)
After a week off, Maye faces Buffalo in a rematch with his AFC East rival in Allen. Maye finished 22 of 30 for 273 yards in the first game earlier this year, a 23-20 victory for the Patriots.
Allen turned the ball over twice, and other than tight end Dalton Kincaid, didn’t get much help from other playmakers on the offense. It will be interesting to see which quarterback plays better the second time these two meet. The Patriots are 1.5-point underdogs at home.
Odds to win MVP: +200
1. Matthew Stafford, QB, Los Angeles Rams (Last week: No. 2)
Stafford threw for 281 yards, with three touchdowns for a 131.2 passer rating in a runaway road victory at Arizona. He is now the fourth quarterback all-time with at least three touchdown passes and no interceptions in seven games within a single season, joining Tom Brady (eight games in 2007), Peyton Manning (seven games in 2013) and Aaron Rodgers (10 in 2020, eight in 2014 and seven in 2016).
Stafford faces his former team, the Detroit Lions, at SoFi Stadium this weekend.
Odds to win MVP: -180
Honorable mention: Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Dak Prescott, Jonathan Taylor, Christian McCaffrey, Jared Goff
Eric D. Williams has reported on the NFL for more than a decade, covering the Los Angeles Rams for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Chargers for ESPN and the Seattle Seahawks for the Tacoma News Tribune. Follow him on X at @eric_d_williams.
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