49ers QB conundrum leaves San Francisco out of pre-season MVP discussion
The 49ers could very well be back in Super Bowl contention this year, but don’t expect them to have anyone in the MVP discussion. BetMGM’s pre-season MVP odds don’t leave San Francisco players off the list entirely, but it takes more than 30 spots to finally find one.
Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo is the first 49ers player to make his way into the BetMGM odds at 125-to-1, so a $1 bet fetches $125 if he wins the award. George Kittle is 150-to-1 and Nick Bosa is 500-to-1.
Typically the award goes to signal callers because of their impact on the game, so naturally quarterbacks are all among the leaders. Patrick Mahomes is the pre-season leader at 5-to-1. The first nine players and 13 of the first 15 in the odds are quarterbacks.
Garoppolo is the 26th quarterback listed, which is an indicator of where he stands among the other top passers in the league, and what oddsmakers think of his ability to play a full season.
If he at any point loses his job or is unavailable for more than a handful of games, his chances to win the award effectively evaporate. On top of that, he’d need a ton of things to go right to win. He’d need the 49ers to be one of the three or four best teams in the league, and he’d need to be the reason they got there. Simply repeating his 2019 campaign wouldn’t be enough.
The fact the No. 3 overall pick, Trey Lance, could take over as early as Week 1 can’t help Garoppolo’s odds. Uncertainty about his job security will push any potential Garoppolo bettors even further away from an already precarious MVP case.
Kittle and Bosa are also there, but the odds a tight end wins the award are slim, and a defensive player would need to be more impactful than Aaron Donald has been at any point in his career, which seems like a long shot.
The good news for the 49ers is they don’t need an MVP candidate to be among the NFL’s top teams. They’re going to ride a committee of running backs and a stout defense if they make a return to the top of the NFL standings no matter who starts under center.
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