NFL MVP Odds: Are Jonathan Taylor or Tom Brady Still Worth a Bet?

NFL MVP Odds: Are Jonathan Taylor or Tom Brady Still Worth a Bet?

Through 16 weeks of the NFL season, it appears like Aaron Rodgers is on his way to win back-to-back NFL MVP Awards. He recently overtook Tom Brady for the top spot of NFL MVP Odds with an incredible run of five games where he's thrown for 16 touchdowns to no interceptions.

His Packers look like they're going to take the one seed in the NFC, all while their star quarterback leads the league in TD%, INT%, AY/A, Rate, and QBR. With games against Minnesota and Detroit left, Rodgers should have a chance to continue his dominant play with a couple more big games against these two poor defenses.

Is anyone else worth a bet though? We'll take a look at the other two contenders and their NFL MVP Odds:

Jonathan Taylor (+700)

What Jonathan Taylor has done this year is downright impressive. The second-year player out of Wisconsin is having his breakout season with 1,626 rushing yards and 17 touchdowns to go with it. He's on the verge of eclipsing 2,000 yards from scrimmage as he has an additional 336 through the air.

What's scary is that Taylor has a "bag game" last week as he ran for 108 yards and no touchdowns. Previously, he had an 11 game touchdown streak and is one of the biggest reasons as to why the Colts have turned their season around in 2021.

A running back winning an MVP is rare, Adrian Peterson was the last to do it almost a decade ago but with two more big performances can he buck that trend? Here's the Colts remaining schedule and how they rank against the run. It could be just what the doctor ordered to give him a late push into the MVP conversation for real:

Week 17 - Las Vegas Raiders: 19th vs run

Week 18 - Jacksonville Jaguars: 24th vs run

Tom Brady (+800)

Just two weeks ago, this was Tom Brady's award to lose as he was the leader in the NFL MVP odds race. He was shut out against the Saints in Week 15 and this past week had just 232 yards and one touchdown against the Carolina Panthers. The two-week stretch dropped him to third in the race but he is still alive with two games to play.

He still leads the NFL with 4,580 yards, 305.3 yards per game, and 37 touchdown passes. It's hard to ignore his dominance at age 44 and maybe that's enough to keep him in the mix for the award. Plus, looking at his schedule, there's one more game circled that could change everything.

He's going against the New York Jets this week. The Jets defense is historically bad and for the last two decades, all he's done is crush this team year after year. Would a four-touchdown performance be enough to get him back into the race? Against this defense that's entirely possible even with all the Bucs injuries.

Week 17 - New York Jets: 28th vs pass

Week 18 - Carolina Panthers: 2nd vs pass

NFL MVP Odds

Complete NFL MVP Odds