Thirteen weeks into the NFL season, the race for the league’s Most Valuable Player award seems to be down to two players.
With five weeks to go, Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford and New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye have risen above the rest. Sure, there are arguments for others — maybe Dak Prescott, Jordan Love or Josh Allen. But Stafford and Maye have resumes the others can’t match.
And the two quarterbacks have traveled wildly different paths to this candidacy.
Stafford is 37, has long been one of the league’s top players at his position and boasts a strong arm and brilliant acumen. He’s a stalwart, savvy veteran of 17 NFL seasons whose profile was lifted when he won a Super Bowl in his first year with Sean McVay and the Rams four seasons ago. Now, he’s on the doorstep of possibly adding an MVP, further bolstering what already should be a Hall of Fame career, as Los Angeles (9-3) is in the running for the NFC’s top seed.
Maye is just 23, an up-and-coming face of the NFL, already a star despite making just 25 pro starts (Stafford has 234). He’s a 6-foot-4 signal caller who can scramble and heave deep balls downfield with precision, who has taken a boring Patriots offense and turned it into one of the league’s most explosive units. He was the No. 3 pick in the 2024 draft, inheriting a position with the Patriots that Tom Brady occupied for so long, and hasn’t been fazed in the slightest, carrying a middling roster to 10 straight wins and a league-best 11-2 record entering the bye week.
We asked our beat reporters for the Rams and Patriots — Nate Atkins and Chad Graff — to compare the seasons of the two quarterbacks and make their case for who’s more deserving of the MVP award.
Matthew Stafford
Statistics
Stafford has spent his 17th season hitting some historic milestones. He became the first quarterback to throw four touchdown passes with no interceptions in three straight games, and he became the first to throw 28 consecutive touchdown passes without an interception. On the season, he has a league-best 32 touchdown passes, and his four interceptions are fewer than all but three quarterbacks (who have at least 300 pass attempts).
The efficiency numbers aren’t quite as dominant, with 7.7 yards per attempt and a 66.3 percent completion rate. But it all adds up to a 111.7 rating, which is just a hair behind Maye’s 111.9 for tops in the NFL.
Remaining schedule
Stafford will finish the season with games against the Arizona Cardinals, Detroit Lions, Seattle Seahawks, Atlanta Falcons and then the Cardinals again. It would help his award case if the Rams earned the NFC’s No. 1 seed, which means posting a better record down the stretch than the Chicago Bears. But his candidacy also could hinge on winning the NFC West, which likely would mean winning the rematch against the Seahawks in Week 16.
It’s not the toughest stretch of opposing defenses left, though the Falcons present a ferocious pass rush, and the Seahawks gave him one of his toughest tests in their first meeting. That Seattle game could be his only game in inclement weather down the stretch.
What he means to his team
Ask anyone in the Rams building, and there’s zero debate over who their MVP is. That was true back when Puka Nacua was leading the NFL in receiving yards early in the season, and it remains true as Davante Adams leads the league in touchdown passes — because both are tied so strongly to Stafford.
He is the clear leader of this team, especially after safety Quentin Lake went on injured reserve. He operates like a coach on the field with the way he’s able to audible and check at the line before plays and act like a string right to McVay’s mind.
The Rams have insulated him with a great supporting cast on offense between a potent run game, a surging offensive line and those two star wide receivers. But the offense has to be the catalyst for a team that has the lowest-paid defense in the NFL.
Making the case
Stafford has had a long and highly productive career, but he’s never played at this level. He is posting career highs in touchdown percentage (8.0 percent), success rate (54.1 percent), quarterback rating and adjusted net yards per pass attempt (8.18). An award like this would be the final cherry on top of a potential Hall of Fame career, and it would further validate the bold trade the Rams made to send Jared Goff and two first-round picks to acquire him.
The MVP is a quarterback award, and wins so often get tied to a quarterback, as well. If Stafford can finish with the league lead in touchdown passes with these strong efficiency numbers, and the Rams win the NFC West, he’ll have a case that’s hard to top. He might lack the fourth-quarter comebacks right now, but his highlight reel is full of no-look passes and explosive passing plays.
Drake Maye of the Patriots is first in the league in quarterback rating, first in completion percentage, third in passing yards per game and fourth in touchdowns. (Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)
Drake Maye
Statistics
It doesn’t matter which stats you prefer in evaluating quarterback play — Maye is likely in the top five.
Prefer old school stats? Maye is first in the league in quarterback rating, first in completion percentage, third in passing yards per game and fourth in touchdowns.
Looking for new school metrics? Maye ranks first in completion percentage over expected, first in adjusted yards per attempt, second in expected points added per play, fourth in success rate and fourth in air yards per target.
Oh, and he’s one of the most mobile quarterbacks in the NFL, ranking seventh in rushing yards among QBs.
Remaining schedule
Part of the MVP award, if we’re being honest, is narrative-based. And while Maye’s candidacy will go against the allure of giving the award to Stafford as a lifetime achievement nod of sorts, Maye should have at least two remaining games in front of large audiences.
The Patriots’ first game after the bye, against the Bills in Buffalo, is CBS’ top 1 p.m. ET game. The next week, they visit the Baltimore Ravens in a game that has a chance of being flexed into prime time.
Those two defenses have had some nice moments this season, but after that, Maye should have a chance to pad his stats with matchups against the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins in the final two weeks.
What he means to his team
The Patriots don’t have an incredible offensive line. Their running game ranks among the worst in the NFL. Their receivers, while improved from a year ago, aren’t keeping defensive coordinators up at night. It’s really all about Maye.
The second-year quarterback has been the entire Patriots offense. Remove him, and New England could be in line for another four-win season.
Making the case
The case for Maye boils down to this: No player in the league is more valuable to his team than Maye is. He’s not surrounded by immense talent. He doesn’t have a Nacua at wide receiver. For all of the success of Josh McDaniels as an offensive coordinator, he’s not considered one of the sport’s most elite offensive minds, as McVay is.
But Maye has teamed up with coach Mike Vrabel to not just turn this franchise around, but turn it into a serious contender — incredibly quickly.
Then, even if you strip away the surrounding circumstances, Maye still has the best numbers in the league. He has more yards per attempt than Stafford, more yards per game and a better completion percentage.
If the award is really supposed to go to the player who is most valuable to his team, it should go to Maye.
