Football fans who don’t support the Patriots must be jealous of New England going from Tom Brady to Drake Maye.
There were a few dark years in between, from when Brady left for Tampa Bay in 2020 to now, Maye’s sensational second season. But the losing in between might have been worth it and a reminder for quarterback-needy teams to stop opting for the quick-fix route and settling for mediocre signal-callers in free agency or in the later rounds of the draft. (I’m looking at you, Raiders.)
The superstar quarterbacks often come from the first round of the draft, such as Josh Allen, Matthew Stafford, Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson and Justin Herbert.
It appeared the Bills were on the verge of dominating the AFC East for the next decade, but the Patriots quickly regrouped with Maye, and now these two star quarterbacks are battling for more than just the division title.
Maye and Allen are two of our five MVP candidates through 11 weeks in the NFL. Let’s examine their MVP cases.
5. Christian McCaffrey, RB, 49ers (7–4)
The four obvious MVP candidates are listed below, but there are many worthy players for the fifth spot.
I nearly went with Seahawks star receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who has 1,146 receiving yards through 10 games and has a shot at Calvin Johnson’s single-season record of 1,946 yards. But I couldn’t ignore what McCaffrey has done to keep the 49ers afloat amid massive injury waves.
After playing only four games last season, McCaffrey hasn’t missed a game through 11 weeks, is averaging 24.2 touches per game and has a league-high 193 carries. And he’s making those touches count, with 707 rushing yards, 74 catches for 732 yards and 11 total touchdowns. McCaffrey might be the only player in the league capable of handling that kind of workload. And it’s even more impressive that he’s doing this in his ninth NFL season at age 29.
