Not only has the paint not dried yet, the 2024-25 NFL season still has blue tape plastered with tears of paint making their way to the floor. But life moves fast in the DraftKings Sportsbook streets. Not too long after Josh Allen was named the regular season MVP for the 2024-25 regular season on Thursday night, the 2025-26 odds were put up on the board.
No disrespect to Kyle Van Noy at +80000 to win the award, but I don’t think it’s necessary to extend the picture all the way down there.
First things first, let’s take a look at the most recent history of MVP award winners. Since 2000, four running backs have won the award while quarterbacks have won the rest. A quarterback has won it the last 12 seasons.
Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers are the only ones to win it back-to-back, with Manning accomplishing the feat twice.
Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen are the current favorites, and for good reason. Both are dual-threat quarterbacks who have been putting up ridiculous stats and stacking up the wins. Jackson won the award in 2023 and 2019. Allen is looking to become the third player to go back-to-back since 2000.
The player that jumps out to me is Christian McCaffrey at +10000. He only played four games last season due to injury and the 49ers in general were a mess. He’s still only 28 years old, and in the prior season, McCaffrey led the league with 1,459 rushing yards and 14 rushing touchdowns while catching 67 passes for 564 yards and seven receiving touchdowns.
San Francisco finished 6-11 last season and should get an easier non-division schedule next season. In addition, the 49ers are still one of the most talented and well-coached teams in the league. It is well within the range of outcomes that McCaffrey puts up robust numbers while the 49ers notch double-digit wins.
The four running backs who have won MVP since 2000 are Marshall Faulk, Shaun Alexander, LaDainian Tomlinson and Adrian Peterson. McCaffrey has often been compared to Faulk and LT, so it wouldn’t surprise if he’s the one to break the recent quarterback streak.
