Packers QB Aaron Rodgers wins 2020 MVP award

After delivering one of the most individually impressive campaigns in recent NFL history, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers earned the Associated Press’ Most Valuable Player award for the 2020 season.

The award caps off one of the finest seasons of Rodgers’ career. The future Hall of Famer led the league in completion percentage (70.7), touchdown passes (48), and several other key passing statistics while leading the Packers to a 13-3 record and the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs. If not for a dropped long touchdown in Week 17, Rodgers would have set a new all-time record for single-season passer rating, breaking the mark he set in 2011.

But the MVP signifies more than mere statistical dominance. Rodgers turned back the clock at a time when a growing number of observers inside and outside the league had begun questioning the quarterback’s place among the game’s elite talents. That list arguably includes his own team which enacted a succession plan earlier in the year with the first-round selection of Jordan Love. Whether spurred on by Love’s arrival or in spite of it, Rodgers returned to form and returned the Packers to Super Bowl front-runner status.

With the award, Rodgers joins an elite class of players who have won the AP MVP three times. The list also includes three Hall of Famers (Jim Brown, Brett Favre, and Johnny Unitas) as well as two future inductees (Tom Brady and Peyton Manning). Rodgers also ties Manning and former Oakland Raiders signal-caller Rich Gannon as the second-oldest players to receive the award (all won it during their age-37 seasons).