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With just 5 weeks left in the NFL regular season, the raise for the league’s Most Valuable Player honor has seemingly boiled down to 2 players — Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley and Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen.
Oddsmakers showed the 2 players separating from the pack after bravura Week 13 performances, with Allen’s odds dipping to -225 on DraftKings and Barkley at +350 — reigning NFL MVP and Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson was at +900.
“I think Saquon Barkley’s got an awesome MVP chance,” said “This is Football” host Kevin Clark on December 1. “And I don’t want to make any proclamations. Like, if I was voting now, yeah, probably Josh Allen. Probably. He deserves it. But Saquon is right there. And I also think that we’re going to see some more moments in December and early January … I think if anybody’s going to close and take it away from Josh Allen, it would be Saquon Barkley. I would go so far as to say it’s a two-horse race…”
Barkley leads the NFL with 1,499 rushing yards in 12 games, which Clark pointed out was in the Top 10 in NFL history through 12 games and puts Barkley ahead of NFL legends like Terrell Davis, Walter Payton and Jim Brown, who did it twice.
No running back has won NFL MVP honors since Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson in 2012, when he rushed for 2,097 yards and 12 touchdowns.
Not Everyone Sold on Barkley’s MVP Chances
Not everyone is so gung-ho about Barkley’s MVP chances, pointing out the friendly nature of the Eagles’ offense for running backs. Few teams can say they have as many elite skill players as Philadelphia with Barkley, quarterback Jalen Hurts, wide receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith and tight end Dallas Goedert.
Not to mention the Eagles have arguably the NFL’s best offensive line — they lead the NFL in rushing offense at 188.9 yards per game.
“I know Barkley is having a great year, but we can’t say he’s MVP of the league,” The Ringer’s Bill Simmons said on “The Bill Simmons Podcast” on December 1. “If you just removed him and put an average running back in the Eagles attack, I still think they’re a playoff team. If you removed Josh Allen … are (the Bills) a .500 team? Probably not. I think the Eagles would be a playoff team no matter who their running back was, as good as Barkley has been.”
Superstar RBs Have Been Few and Far Between
The last 25 years has seen the gradual decline of the superstar NFL running back as quarterbacks and wide receivers have taken over the game, taking advantage of stricter rules on illegal contact.
While the NFL MVP drought for running backs recently passed the decade mark, it’s been much longer since a running back grabbed the biggest individual honor on the NFL’s biggest stage — no running back has been named Super Bowl MVP since Denver Broncos running back Terrell Davis in 1998.
Since Peterson won in 2012, a running back has only even been runner-up in MVP voting once, when Los Angeles Rams running back Todd Gurley finished behind New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady in 2017.
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