[New] The MVP Race Is On

BY TOM BARTON

At this point of the NFL season we have a pretty good idea of what teams have overachieved, which ones have stunk up the joint, and what is for real in the overall season. The same goes for the players. We can no longer say that Geno Smith's resurgence has been just a flukey hot start, nor can we say that Aaron Rodgers still has time to turn his season around. With that being said, this is a great time to look at the MVP future odds across the NFL.

Before the season began Josh Allen was the odds on favorite, and had the most money thrown his way to take home the award, but Patrick Mahomes was not far behind. Mahomes has done what his backers believed and then some. Without Tyreek Hill, Mahomes now leads the MVP odds at -150. Mahomes leads the league in passing yards and TDs as he eyes his 2nd MVP. That shouldn't be a surprise to most fans.

Jalen Hurts however, that is a surprise to many. Hurts is +300 to take home the award and even with the Eagles struggling to get wins recently, Hurts' legs have been doing all the talking for him. Just two weeks ago his odds were doubled and in the preseason he was 12-1 in many spots.

Tua Tagovailoa is next up with 5 to 1 odds to put the award on his mantle. Tua might be the best value based on his eye popping change and the great 'story' it is for the NFL. Tua's stock will also rise if the Dolphins are able to overtake the preseason Super Bowl favorite Bills for the East lead. The only drawback of Tagovailoa is that he missed a couple of games and his stats will likely be less than Mahomes across the board because of that.

Finally, there is Josh Allen. Allen was as low as -250 in the preseason to win what seemed to be his award for the taking and now has fallen all the way down to 14 to 1 odds. But, don't count out Allen who is on track to beat his personal passing yards, career highs. He sits in 2nd in passing yards currently.

He has the same overall number of touchdowns as he did last season and he has an outside shot to rush for nearly 1,000 yards on the ground.

Names like Joe Burrow at 151, Justin Jefferson at 16-1 and Nick Chubb at 20-1 have also surfaced but while there is plenty of time left in the season, they are decidedly looking in from the outside. Hurts is exciting and garnering a ton of attention, Tua might be able to overcome his missing games and Allen might be able to crawl back into this thing, but the smart money is still on the leader in Mahomes. What he is doing minus Tyreek Hill has sports writers around the country in awe. He will have the story, the stats, and likely a first place team to back up his resume.

Sometimes the smart money is to take the favorite and not look for the big payout.