Best Bet For NFL MVP 2022 Season
One commonality among the top tier of favorites to win the NFL MVP in the upcoming 2022 season is that they are all signal-callers.
Per DraftKings Sportsbook the current favorite is Josh Allen (+700) followed closely by Patrick Mahomes (+900). In fact, quarterbacks comprise the top 16 favorites to win the upcoming season’s MVP award. Currently, Cooper Kupp has the best odds of any non-quarterback at +5000.
Josh Allen’s situation is setup perfectly for him to not only break team records and rack up wins but also likely earn at least one league MVP during the course of his career. Over the past two seasons he has thrown for 73 TDs with 25 INTs, which is near elite production from the quarterback position. However, that may not alone be able to set Allen apart from a crowded field of worthy MVP candidates this season. That is where his versatility, durability, and athleticism truly shine. Not only is he a top tier quarterback but he is also arguably Buffalo’s most impactful runner. In addition to his 73 passing TDs over the last two seasons Allen has also rushed for 14 TDs and 1,184 yards. Given Buffalo’s difficulty in establishing their running game with their RBs, it stands to reason that Buffalo will continue to rely on Allen’s dual threat ability to put points on the board. This is all not to say that Buffalo has no one else to carry the water on offense. Make no mistake about it – the Bills’ offense is loaded with talent especially at the WR and TE positions. Their skill position players are headlined by All-Pro Stefon Diggs, a top tier WR1 and Dawson Knox an up and coming TE who tripled his 2020 touchdown output by putting up 9 in 2021. The potential emergence of Gabriel Davis is also something to watch for Buffalo this season. He simply went off in the playoffs - finishing with 10 catches for 242 yards and five TDs in just two games. Allen could be one of the best picks for this NFL season if he is able to continue his dominance from last season, but we have a feeling he certainly cannot continue at a rate like that but it isn’t unreasonable to expect him to take a step forward, especially since it appears Cole Beasley and Emmanuel Sanders will not be back in Buffalo.
Patrick Mahomes is the prototypical perennial MVP candidate. He is at very worst a top-three quarterback in the league and is seemingly a safe bet to win MVP any given year. Though this year will unquestionably be a little bit different for the Chiefs’ signal-caller, specifically due to the departure this offseason of All-World wide receiver Tyreek Hill. Hill is probably the most explosive player in the entire NFL and regardless of the player that replaces him, it will be a downgrade. Last year alone Mahomes threw for over 4,800 yards and 37 TDs en route to the team’s fourth straight appearance in the AFC Championship under Mahomes’ leadership. While this year will certainly be different without the threat of Tyreek Hill running wild on opposing defenses every week, Mahomes should still be himself. No player will be more important to Mahomes this season than All-Pro tight end Travis Kelce. Kelce will not have as much free space to operate now that defenses don’t have to worry about Tyreek Hill running right past them, but he will still be a focal point of the offense and a go-to target for Mahomes especially in the red zone where Kelce uses his size and athleticism to his advantage against opponents. To go along with holdover Mecole Hardman the Chiefs have brought in WR Juju Smith-Schuster from Pittsburgh and drafted speedy receiver Skyy Moore. These additions will help to fill the very large void that Tyreek Hill has left, while giving the Chiefs more cap space to address other more pressing needs.
There are a couple of dark horses in the field that I could very easily see shooting way up the odds boards by the end of this coming season. My two favorites to mention are Derrick Henry at +5000 and Justin Jefferson at +15000.
Derrick Henry is coming off of an injury-plagued season, which causes some concern, but I expect him to come back and be the top tier RB that he has been over the past several seasons. He is also coming back to a Titans offense that no longer has rising star A.J. Brown in it, which is a lot of targets to disperse among the team’s playmakers. Though the Titans drafted Treylon Burks and signed Robert Woods this offseason, I still expect Derrick Henry to shoulder the largest portion of the offensive touches. Tannehill’s three INTs in the AFC divisional round last year against the Bengals illustrated some of the offense’s limitations and showed Coach Mike Vrabel that Tannehill cannot be leaned on too heavily. This sets the offense up to run directly through Derrick Henry this coming season.
Justin Jefferson is not very likely to be winning MVP this year, especially after the year Cooper Kupp had last year and he still did not win it. However, Justin Jefferson has put up monster numbers in his first two seasons and shows no signs of slowing down. Last year Justin Jefferson finished second to Kupp in receiving yards with 1,616 along with 10 receiving TDs on 108 catches. Impressively, he has emerged as the best wide receiver on the team overtaking Adam Thielen and one of the best WRs in the entire NFL. The future is very bright for Jefferson and I expect that growth to continue this season where he could easily outperform the lofty numbers he just produced last season.
If you are looking for picks for every NFL game this season look no further than PicksforTonight where you can find their model’s picks for free every game every week.
