Midseason NFL MVP predictions | You Pod to Win the Game
We’ve reached the midway point to the NFL season. So who has put up not only the numbers, but the wins to be in the MVP conversation at the end of the year? Yahoo Sports’ Charles Robinson and Dan Wetzel debate between two candidates who are likely to be atop the conversation come January. Hear the full conversation on the You Pod to Win the Game podcast. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
CHARLES ROBINSON: MVP. I'm going to go with Tom Brady. Tom Brady on pace, I think, to hit-- I mean, throw, like, 50 touchdown passes this year. There are a number of candidates out there but I think some of these guys-- Dak getting banged up. Kyler Murray getting banged up. Matt Stafford having, like, a weird Carson Wentz-type game against the Titans.
I just feel like Brady, for the most part, on balance this season in a-- what's going to be a wide-open MVP race all the way, has been the best player, best quarterback, best-- you know, probably the one player that if you removed him off the team, I don't know how the team would really function necessarily at a high level without him.
So it's not a sexy pick but I can't, I can't fault the guy for just being a consistently high-level great quarterback. And it's not like he hasn't had his lumps but I do think this is going to be an MVP race that's going to be-- unless somebody just, like, absolutely drops the hammer in the second half-- it's going to be an MVP race where you could see a lot of split votes this year. Where you could see a lot of people-- I could see three or four guys even getting votes this year.
DAN WETZEL: I think Brady will win this if he keeps up his play, if he gets over 50 touchdowns. I think he's going to win it. There's going to be a nostalgia vote. Give one more to Brady, that kind of thing. Aaron Rodgers had a real claim. I don't think he will get it now. There's a lot of-- I mean-- there's one way to anger the media. The sportswriters are up in arms over him being unvaxxed.
CHARLES ROBINSON: OK. OK, but wait, wait, wait---
DAN WETZEL: It's going to kill him. That's going to kill his vote.
CHARLES ROBINSON: But let me push back on that a little bit because I saw Pat McAfee kind of joke, like-- you know, and Rodgers said it was, there was some legitimacy to him not winning MVP now because of what just happened.
I'm an MVP voter. I absolutely will vote for that guy. I could care less. Like, that, to me, doesn't factor in-- whatever he did on the McAfee show has nothing to do with-- or his, you know--
DAN WETZEL: Maybe not your vote.
CHARLES ROBINSON: --on the field. I'm just telling you, I know that field of voters. You know, you think, you think Troy Aikman is not going to vote for him? You think James Lofton is not going to vote for him? You think-- I mean, you know, there's--
I really, truly believe you're not going to see MVP voters go, well, jeez, he had the best season but, man, there was that co-- No, if he has the best season, he's going to get the votes. He's going to-- he's--
DAN WETZEL: He's going to have to have a definitively best season. I know how bad Green Bay is without him. It's not pretty.
I will give you my side thing. I just don't think he's going to get the vote. I don't think he's going to have the year enough and we'll see how many-- First, two, couple of things. We don't know if he's back Sunday.
CHARLES ROBINSON: True. True.
DAN WETZEL: Also we don't know what he returns like. The presumption is, oh, snap your fingers. Aaron's back. We're good. Last year we saw otherwise, with Cam Newton and Lamar Jackson. They weren't quite as good when they got back. It took a little while. I got no idea. It's COVID. COVID is the craziest thing we've ever seen. You see healthy people get sick and you see old, sick people have a sneeze and move on. We got no idea.
So hopefully, he is back in pure form and he's healthy and all of that. I will say this. I am going to say Lamar Jackson should be the MVP.
CHARLES ROBINSON: OK, I like that one.
DAN WETZEL: Baltimore's defense is not as good as it has been. It's still pretty good, but it's not as good. He has absolutely no running backs, he does not have a plethora of weapons, he-- you know, look, the numbers aren't going to be as great because he has to do so much. He's got seven picks already this season, on 13 TDs.
But the way he runs, the way every single thing in the Baltimore Ravens offense goes through him. The way you play coverage, the way you could do stuff, everything is about Lamar Jackson. And, and, when he is on, he, he's the one winning them games.
I think Lamar Jackson's got a case to be the MVP of the league. Obviously they need to continue a 6 and 2 start. But man, if they're 13 and 4 at the end of the year and they win that division? And this stays up? I think Lamar Jackson's got a great case considering he isn't surrounded like Tom Brady is with seven million great weapons.
CHARLES ROBINSON: You are right about that. Actually, I love it. That's a great, absolutely great argument. And I like Lamar being one of those guys that's right in the race to the end. He's, and I think he also has the potential to drop the hammer in the second half. No, no argument for me at all. Like, you could even convince me to come off the Brady pick and take Lamar Jackson.
DAN WETZEL: Come with me. Come with me. You got it.
CHARLES ROBINSON: Yeah, it was a good-- no, it's a very good argument.