Ranking of 24 MVP Candidates in ’24

Pre-season awards have taken a back seat at the university, with most of our 24 candidates for the Most Valuable Player award having other trophies in mind as the 2024 season gets underway.

Our NFL editors spoke with the players we believe are primed to claim the MVP award once the 18-week regular season winds down.

1. Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes

Mahomes is exactly the kind of player who can win the award — and the Super Bowl — every season. A full year of receiver growing pains is over, and a maturing group could mean Mahomes can post his third 5,000-yard passing season and double the 27 touchdowns he threw for last year.

2. Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson

Jackson became the 11th player in NFL history to win multiple MVPs 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, scored five times and averaged 5.5 yards per carry. Jackson is poised for another solid year despite the uncertainty with the offensive line.

3. Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow

The offensive line may finally be fixed. If so, watch out, world. Burrow has recovered from a season-ending wrist injury in November against the Ravens and is one of the most talented quarterbacks in the NFL. In 2022-23, he has thrown for 4,475 yards and 35 touchdowns with 12 interceptions in 16 games. He has also completed 68.3 percent of his pass attempts (414 of 606) in leading the Bengals to back-to-back division titles for the first time in franchise history.

4. Texans QB CJ Stroud

If 2023 is any indication, history might laugh out loud at the Carolina Panthers for passing up Stroud with the first pick to take Bryce Young. Stroud was everything Houston could have wanted and more in a quarterback, showing the maturity and ability to win big games in the final moments. There’s no reason to expect a sophomore curse given his focus and the fact that 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 while finishing third in MVP voting. He then had five more postseason TDs while leading the 49ers to the Super Bowl, which they lost to Kansas City in OT. A calf injury kept him out of most of training camp and all of the preseason games.

6. Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott

Hard to believe, but Team America has never had an MVP QB. Prescott nearly accomplished something Troy Aikman, Roger Staubach and Tony Romo never did by finishing second to Lamar Jackson in 2023 — 30 years after Emmitt Smith became the Cowboys’ only MVP winner. A fifth double-digit win season would propel Prescott to the trophy.

7. Eagles QB Jalen Hurts

In 2022, Hurts became the second player in NFL history to pass for 3,500 yards and 20 touchdowns through the air and 12 or more scores on the ground, following Cam Newton (2011). In 2023, he became the first to do so twice. A third such feat would put the 2022 MVP runner-up in the running to become the first receiver in Philadelphia history.

8. Lions quarterback Jared Goff

GM Brad Holmes linked the franchise to Goff with a massive contract that puts Detroit’s faith in the maligned quarterback into 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 in Sam LaPorta help, while head coach Dan Campbell’s muscle up front and run-first mentality promise a balance to test any defensive scheme.

9. Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers

Rodgers already has four to his name and won the award in 2021. If any 40-year-old can bounce back from a season-ending Achilles injury, it’s Rodgers.

10. Packers quarterback Jordan Love

Send your apologies to GM Brian Gutekunst at his office in Lambeau Field if you were among those who called Love a bust in the first half of last season, when he tended to be good enough to lose close games. But Love isn’t the anti-Aaron Rodgers performance-wise. Instead, the evolving prospect is taking the next step with an underrated cadre of wide receivers.

11. Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray

Want an outsider candidate for MVP? Murray was a top contender in 2021 before fading late in the game and suffering a horrific ACL injury in 2022. The Cardinals led the league in total offense after he returned from the injury in Week 10 of last season, allowing 414.3 yards per game.

12. 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy

Purdy finished fourth in MVP voting last season, behind Jackson, Prescott and McCaffrey. The former Mr. Irrelevant of 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 quarterback Justin Herbert

Jim Harbaugh has a pretty good track record with talented quarterbacks and inherited one in L.A. If Herbert, who suffered a foot injury in the preseason, stays healthy, the Chargers could be a slick contender in the AFC.

14. Colts RB Jonathan Taylor

With a young quarterback who only has four games of NFL experience, it makes sense that Indianapolis would need to build its offense around a guy who can carry a team when he’s fit. “Or” is the question, as Taylor has missed 13 games over the last two years. But if he can score in all 17 games, Taylor will likely have plenty of opportunities to match or surpass the 1,811 yards he rushed for in 2021.

15. Bills quarterback 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 win the MVP title. 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 — a 5.0 yards per carry average with 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 can be a force on special teams, Williams will emerge as an outside MVP candidate.

18. Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield

Mayfield had his most productive season in 2023 and earned a huge contract. His leadership and increased comfort level from a second season with wide receivers Mike Evans and Chris Godwin and tight end Cade Otten should make for an excellent offensive season.

19. Browns DE Myles Garrett

Garrett is a playmaker who can help the Browns win. Last year, he was named AP Defensive Player of the Year after finishing with 14 sacks — tied for the 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 used with the Rams, should allow Robinson, who had more than 1,000 total offensive yards 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 for much of the 2023 season. A better receiver than most understand, the only roadblock to a huge season appears to be sustainability.

22. Jets RB Breece Hall

While opposing defenses will have their hands full with Rodgers, Hall could quietly run for over 1,000 yards after coming just 6 yards shy of that mark last season. Hall also had the second-most catches for New York (76), making him a huge threat on every snap.

23. Saints quarterback Derek Carr

If the offensive line is in order, Carr should flourish under first-year coordinator Klint Kubiak. The versatility of Alvin Kamara and Taysom Hill and a play-action game that utilizes 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-esque vibes surrounding this second-round pick last year, but when Levis was handed the starting job in late October, he showed he’s a top prospect, plus a ton of confidence and grit while playing behind a mostly turnstile forward line.

–Field Level Media