Preseason awards were left behind in college and most of our 24 candidates for Most Valuable Player have other trophies at heart as the 2024 season kicks off.
Our NFL writers checked in with the players we consider capable of claiming the MVP award when the dust settles on the 18-week regular season.
1. Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes
Mahomes is just the kind of player that can win the award — and Super Bowl — every season. A full year of receiver growing pains is out of the way, and a mature group could mean Mahomes posts his third 5,000-yard passing season and 2x the 27 touchdowns he threw last year.
2. Ravens QB Lamar Jackson
Jackson became the 11th player in NFL history to win MVP multiple times when he claimed his second last season. He threw for 3,678 yards and 24 touchdowns with career highs in completion percentage (67.2) and yards per completion (8.0) over 16 regular-season games. He also led the Ravens with 821 yards rushing, scoring five times and averaging 5.5 yards per carry. Jackson is poised for another solid year despite the uncertainty with the offensive line.
3. Bengals QB Joe Burrow
The offensive line might finally be fixed. If so, watch out, world. Recovered from a season-ending wrist injury he suffered in November against the Ravens, Burrow is one of the most talented quarterbacks in the NFL. In 2022-23, he threw for 4,475 yards and 35 touchdowns with 12 interceptions over 16 games. He also completed 68.3% of his pass attempts (414-of-606), leading the Bengals to back-to-back division crowns for the first time in franchise history.
4. Texans QB C.J. Stroud
If 2023 was any indication, history might guffaw loudly at the Carolina Panthers for passing Stroud with the top pick to take Bryce Young. Stroud was everything Houston could have wanted and more in a quarterback, showing the maturity and skill to win big games down the stretch. There’s no reason to expect a sophomore jinx, given his focus and the fact the team added Joe Mixon and Stefon Diggs at running back and receiver, respectively.
5. 49ers RB Christian McCaffrey
If McCaffrey isn’t the first pick in every fantasy draft, something is wrong. He rushed for 1,459 yards and 14 TDs in the regular season last year, plus caught 67 passes for 564 and seven more scores when he was third in MVP balloting. Then he had five more postseason TDs in leading the 49ers to the Super Bowl, which they lost to Kansas City in OT. A calf strain kept him out of most of training camp and all of the preseason games.
6. Cowboys QB Dak Prescott
Hard to believe, but America’s Team has never had an MVP QB. Prescott nearly achieved something Troy Aikman, Roger Staubach and Tony Romo never did, placing second to Lamar Jackson in 2023 — 30 years after Emmitt Smith became the Cowboys’ only MVP winner. A fifth season with double-digit wins could push Prescott to the trophy.
7. Eagles QB Jalen Hurts
In 2022, Hurts became the second player in NFL history with 3,500 yards and 20 touchdowns through the air and 12 or more scores on the ground, joining Cam Newton (2011). In 2023, he became the first to do it twice. A third such effort will put the 2022 MVP runner-up in the running to become the first recipient in Philadelphia history.
8. Lions QB Jared Goff
GM Brad Holmes hitched the franchise to Goff with a massive contract that spells out Detroit’s belief in the maligned quarterback in big, round numbers. Goff’s 2023 season bordered on special with 30 TD passes and 4,575 yards. An elite No. 1 receiver in Amon-Ra St. Brown and a rising talent at tight end, Sam LaPorta, helps while the muscle up front and run-first mentality of head coach Dan Campbell promises balance to test any defensive scheme.
9. Jets QB Aaron Rodgers
Rodgers already has four of these, winning the award as recently as 2021. If any 40-year-old can bounce back from a season-ending Achilles injury, it’s Rodgers.
10. Packers QB Jordan Love
Send your apology letters to GM Brian Gutekunst at his Lambeau Field office if you were among those who labeled Love a bust in the first half of last season, when he was trending toward being good enough to lose close games. But Love isn’t the anti-Aaron Rodgers in performance after all. Instead, the evolving talent takes a next step in stride with an underrated cadre of wide receivers.
11. Cardinals QB Kyler Murray
Want a dark-horse candidate for MVP? Murray was a leading contender in 2021 before fading late, then suffered a gruesome ACL injury in 2022. The Cardinals led the league in total offense after he returned from the injury in Week 10 last season, with 414.3 yards per game.
12. 49ers QB Brock Purdy
Purdy was fourth in the MVP balloting last season, behind Jackson, Prescott and McCaffrey. The former Mr. Irrelevant from the 2022 draft proved his rookie season was no fluke, despite coming off UCL surgery last year. He completed 69.4% of his passes for 4,280 yards and 31 TDs in the regular season.
13. Chargers QB Justin Herbert
Jim Harbaugh has a pretty good track record with talented quarterbacks and inherited one in LA. If Herbert — who dealt with a foot injury in the preseason — stays healthy, the Chargers could be a sneaky contender in the AFC.
14. Colts RB Jonathan Taylor
With a young quarterback that has just four games of NFL experience, it stands to reason that Indianapolis will need to build its offense around a guy who can carry a team if healthy. “If” is the question here, as Taylor missed 13 games the last two years. But should he post for all 17 games, Taylor figures to get plenty of chances to match or surpass the 1,811 yards he rushed for back in 2021.
15. Bills QB Josh Allen
No more Diggs or Gabe Davis means Khalil Shakir, Keon Coleman and Curtis Samuel will be among Allen’s top targets. It’s not the most elegant trio of pass-catchers, but Allen can do just as much damage on the ground as he can through the air.
16. Cowboys EDGE Micah Parsons
Hall of Famers Alan Page (1971) and Lawrence Taylor (1986) are the only defensive players to claim MVP honors. Page was 26 and Taylor was 27 when they won, giving the 25-year-old Parsons — who finished eighth in the voting in 2022 — a chance to become the youngest of his kind if he increases his sack total for a fourth straight campaign.
17. Rams RB Kyren Williams
As if a 1,114-yard season — average of 5.0 yards per carry, 12 touchdowns and 32 catches for 206 yards and three TDs — wasn’t versatile enough, Williams will also return punts this season. If the Rams are a playoff team and he’s a force on special teams, Williams will emerge as a dark horse MVP candidate.
18. Buccaneers QB Baker Mayfield
19. Browns DE Myles Garrett
Garrett is a game-wrecker who can help carry the Browns to victories. Last year, he was named the AP Defensive Player of the Year after finishing with 14 sacks – tied for third-most by a Browns player in a season. Garrett also had six quarterback hurries, 16 quarterback knockdowns, and 30 quarterback hits.
20. Falcons RB Bijan Robinson
New coordinator Zac Robinson’s system, which he operated with the Rams, should enable Robinson, who had more than 1,000 yards of total offense as a rookie last season, to excel.
21. Packers RB Josh Jacobs
Two years removed from leading the NFL in rushing, Jacobs is the player the Packers want on the field after a timeshare approach in the backfield most of the 2023 season. A better receiver than most understand, the only roadblock to a massive season appears to be durability.
22. Jets RB Breece Hall
While opposing defenses will have their hands full with Rodgers, Hall could quietly rush for well over 1,000 yards after coming just 6 shy of that mark a season ago. Hall also had the second-most catches for New York (76), making him a massive threat on every snap.
23. Saints QB Derek Carr
If the offensive line is OK, Carr should thrive under first-year coordinator Klint Kubiak. The versatility of Alvin Kamara and Taysom Hill and a play-action game that takes advantage of young receivers Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed should be reminiscent of the 49ers system that Kubiak brought with him.
24. Titans QB Will Levis
There were some Ryan Leaf-type vibes around this pick in the second round last year but when Levis got the starting job in late October, he showed a big-league arm, plus plenty of poise and moxie while playing behind an offensive line composed mostly of turnstiles.