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Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes was the frontrunner to win the NFL’s Most Valuable Player award heading into Week 14. But that’s no longer the case after a rough divisional outing.
Against the Denver Broncos at Mile High Stadium, Mahomes completed 66% of his passes for 352 yards, 3 touchdowns, and also had 3 interceptions. The Week 14 outing marked the third time in Mahomes’ career in which he has thrown three interceptions in a single game.
Mahomes’ turnovers didn’t impact the end result of the 34-28 victory for Kansas City, but his performance did impact his standing in the MVP race.
Mahomes Dethroned by Jalen Hurts
Mahomes’ MVP odds have gone from 6/5 on December 6 to 8/5 on December 13, according to BetOnline. Surpassing him in the MVP race is Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, whose MVP odds have gone from 8/5 on December 3 to 5/8 on December 13.
The main reason Mahomes, who leads the league in passing yards and passing touchdowns through 14 games, is now trailing Hurts in the MVP race is because of turnovers.
Despite accounting for 35 total touchdowns this season (33 passing, 2 rushing), Mahomes also has 11 turnovers, 3 of which came in his most recent outing, which brings recency bias into effect. Although that isn’t a lot of turnovers, it’s more than Hurts has (5), and Hurts has nearly as many total touchdowns as Mahomes (32) as well, according to Pro Football Reference.
If Mahomes can finish the regular season strong, he could very well recapture the lead in the MVP race. However, he also needs Hurts, who is quarterbacking the No. 1 seed in the NFC, to slow down as well.
Twitter Talks Mahomes-Hurts MVP Race
Twitter users talked about the Mahomes-Hurts MVP race with 4 games remaining in the NFL regular season.
“Patrick Mahomes has the same amount of interceptions today that Jalen Hurts has all season,” Brenden Deeg of the Score wrote. “Hurts is the MVP of the league so far, ladies and gentlemen.”
“I’m good with that. MVP doesn’t win a ring so I will happily let Hurts get the trophy while Pat gets the ring,” another user wrote.
“The Christmas Eve slate probably decides it. Chiefs and Eagles both have pretty underwhelming matchups Weeks 15, 17, and 18,” another user wrote. “But Mahomes and Hurts can make their cases against the Seahawks/Cowboys on the 24th. If Hurts looks superhuman against Dallas, it’s probably over.”
“This might seem a little contradictory, but while I’m as on the Patrick Mahomes bus as anyone, it won’t bother me if Jalen Hurts wins MVP,” Scott Pianowski of Yahoo Sports wrote. “Mahomes is the best player in the league, but I don’t mind if awards have a little team narrative mixed in there.”
“Looks great now, but Vegas has a lot of recency bias when mahomes has 600 more yards of offense and 10 more pass TDs/3 more overall TDs than Jalen,” another user wrote. “The overall body of work stats wise is still in Mahomes’ favor. The only stat hurts is better in overall is turnovers.”
“Isn’t it hilarious. Eagles fans today are posting a picture of [Dallas Cowboys CB Trevon] Diggs tweeting about his int.. saying he only cares about stats… yet here are eagles fans, getting exited about a useless award.”
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