At the start of the 2024 NFL season, you most likely would not have thought that the MVP front runners would be Derek Carr, Sam Darnold, or Jared Goff, and you would’ve been right. The MVP Race has a tendency to change and throw in some curveballs because sometimes unexpected players will shine for a few weeks and then start playing badly again.
The frontrunner for the MVP race is statistically Lamar Jackson. He has 2,669 passing yards (2nd in the league) and 538 rushing yards (most in the league), 24 touchdowns (tied 1st), and 2 interceptions (fewest in the league with over 2,000 passing yards). Jackson also has less than 300 attempts and most of the other passing leaders have over 300 or at least more than Jackson.
Second place for the MVP race is definitely Joe Burrow. He is leading the league in passing yards and has the same amount of interceptions as Lamar Jackson, which is the fewest in the league among the top quarterbacks. He and his teammate Ja’Marr Chase are single-handedly carrying their team to wins. Burrow has also been sacked 10 more times than Jackson and has more passing yards than him, the same amount of touchdowns and interceptions, more completions and passing attempts, and more plays over 40 yards.
The third-place candidate for the 2024 MVP is more of a hot take, but it’s Brock Purdy. He has led the 49ers to a 5-4 record while having the majority of his starters injured. He lost his main receiver for the whole year, his starting running back was injured, and hasn’t played a game up until last week. Purdy’s other receivers were sick in the hospital and the other one got shot in his chest before the season started. Now despite all of these hardships and obstacles, he is 6th in passing yards with 2,454 yards, he has completed 181 out of 278 attempts, 65% completion with a 97 quarterback rate, he has 12 touchdowns with nothing but back-ups, 9 plays of 40+ yards (same as Joe Burrow) with his longest play being 76 yards (longer than Joe Burrow’s longest play).
In the fourth place spot, it’s Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff. Jared Goff has 2,492 passing yards, 9.2 yards per attempt, 270 attempts, and 197 completions, he has 20 touchdowns with 9 interceptions, 112.2 passer rating, 39 plays that went over 20 yards, 8 plays over 40 yards, and his longest play was 70 yards. He isn’t a very mobile QB so he doesn’t have the rushing yards that other QBs have, but he is most likely the most dangerous QB in the pocket. Now he isn’t, in my opinion, the MVP favorite to win because he has the best team in the NFL and he’s not even the most valuable player on his own team.
All research and statistics were gathered from the NFL passing yards leaders. https://www.nfl.com/stats/player-stats/
