2024-25 NFL MVP Odds: Who is leading the race for the NFL Most Valuable Player Award

The competition is always hot to become the National Football League’s most valuable player and be crowned the best in the business.

In 2023-24 it was Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson who had his best regular season to date and took out the award ahead of 49er’s running back Christian McCaffrey and Cowboys QB Dak Prescott.

The 2024-25 season is set to be one of the most contested in years with the Kansas City Chiefs going for a three-peat and their quarterback Patrick Mahomes chasing G.O.A.T status. San Francisco are licking their wounds off another Super Bowl loss and will be hungry to go one better while the emergence of the Detroit Lions back to the contender conversation along with reigning Rookie of the Year C.J Stroud geared up with more weapons to take the Texans deeper into the postseason. 

Who will lead their team and become the NFL's most valuable player of the 2024-25 season?

While Pat Mahomes keeps winning the KC quarterback remains the strong favourite for the MVP, but this week it is all about the emergence of Washington rookie and number 2 pick in the 2024 draft, Jayden Daniels, who has led the Washington Commanders to a 4-1 start to the season. 

No one in the NFL has a higher completion rate than the LSU prodigy at 77.1% over his first 5 games in the NFL. Many tipped the Commanders to only win 5 games total this season and Daniels and the Commanders are almost there. 

If you tipped the Minnesota Vikings to be 4-0 to start the season the keys to my office are yours. If you picked Sam Darnold to be the best quarterback in the NFL after the first month, then you are a lunatic. 

It has taken seven years in the league, but Darnold has announced himself as a decent thrower of the ball. The crazy stat, he has trown a touchdown on 10.4% of his passes with 11 touchdowns from 106 attempts and completing at 68.9% and has a league-high 118.9 rating. No wonder why he has firmed in to a $9.75 favourite.

Lamar Jackson also trimmed down his odds this week after dusting the Bills on Monday night. The Ravens QB threw 2 touchdowns and ran in one along with 210 total yards in the match.

Buffalo Bills' quarterback Josh Allen has moved within $0.40 of early favourite Patrick Maholmes and in some books is even shorter and the pair are at the same price as dual favourites.

Allen claimed his MVP favourite stakes with a huge performance in week 3 of the NFL season, throwing 4 touchdowns and 263 yards, completing 23 of 30 passing attempts and throwing no interceptions. It is the first time in Allen's 8 season's his first 3 games of the year have been intercept free.

The other big movers in the MVP race in week 3 were Aaron Rodgers who has come into fourth favourite dropping $5.00 in price, while Ravens QB Lamar Jackson has also come in by the same amount.

I never thought I would see Baker Mayfield in the top ten of the MVP race after his time in Cleveland but moving to Tampa last season changed his career. Mayfield ranks 10th in passing yards with 474 over the first two weeks and is completing at 73.5%, 6th in the NFL, while having a league leading 5 touchdown passes. 

Just outside of the 10, there has to be an honourable mention to the Saints Derek Carr ($29.00) and Atlanta's Kirk Cousins ($34.00), who if last season and career performances didn't influence the odds would be well higher up the list after what they have done in the first two weeks of the season.

Not a lot has changed at the top of the list besides second-year quarterback C.J. Stroud firming in to join Buffallo's Josh Allen as the second favourite. Lamar Jackson continues to tumble after the Ravens 0-2 start, but it he will climb again as soon as Baltimore gets a 'W'.

The biggest news to come out of the MVP race after week one of the NFL is the injury to Jordon Love which has seen him drop oput of the top ten with uncertainty of his return. The good news for the Green Bay quarterback is the Packers have not put him on IR which is a sign that he will return in the short-term. 

The gap between Mahomes and the rest of the field was shortened by a 4 touchdown performance (2 rushing + 2 passing) by Bills QB Josh Allen. A$3.75 difference is now down to just $1.00 despite last year's Super Bowl winning quarterback leading the Chiefs to s big win in the opening match of the season vs the Ravens.

Joe Burrow is the biggest drop on the list without suffering an injury after the Cinncinnati Bengals fell to the New England Patriots with Burrow completing for just 162 yards and no touchdowns.

It is no surprise that Kansas City Chiefs QB is the heavy $4.50 favourite to start the season. Mahomes will be chasing his third consecutive Super Bowl and the fourth of his six year career as a starter in the NFL. The Texas Tech prodigy is also chasing his third NFL MVP award after collecting the honours in 2018 and 2022.  

The Chiefs and Mahomes had arguably their toughest season last year and did not have the receiving weapons they have had in the past and at times through the regular season all faith was lost, but they topped their division and won the whole thing.

In the offseason they have gone out and picked up wide receivers Xavier Worthy (draft) and Marquise Brown (free agency) which is going to make things easier for Mahomes to hit his targets and create space for his number one Travis Kelce. This could be the biggest year yet for Mahomes and he could very well shorten for the MVP award with each week the season goes on.

When it comes to the contenders there are two that stand out for me to start the year, C.J. Stroud and Joe Burrow.

Firstly, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson get ruled out due to the personnel they have lost on offence and defence and I see both of the Bills and Ravens organisations having a tougher year this season, not disastrous, but enough to rule the QB’s out of the race.

Stroud and the Texans have added some serious weaponry on offence bringing in former Bills WR Stefon Diggs who had 107 receptions last season and also picking up Joe Mixon who had 1034 rushing yards for the Bengals. The moves strengthen the offence dramatically for Houston and should almost guarantee an even better season for Stroud.

Joe Burrow is starting the season healthy for Cincinnati and when their quarterback is fit they win games. Burrow is one of the only quarterbacks who has been able to get the better of Mahomes and the Chiefs in recent years. If he stays healthy and the Bengals dominate their division Burrow will be the reason why they are Super Bowl contender in 2024-25.