1. Matt Ryan– He’s coming off the best year of his career. He led the Atlanta Falcons to the NFC South division title (in a season when everybody picked Carolina), the two seed in the NFC playoffs which nobody saw coming and to the Super Bowl. He took tremendous strides in working his name up to the conversation of elite quarterbacks and now, he’s there. For years, we’ve wondered when we’d see Matt Ryan take control of a game and of course, he’s a candidate coming into the year to win the award again and if he plays anything like he did last year, the league should be scared of the damage this Atlanta Falcons offense can do. He also has a plethora of weapons around him. Having guys like Mohamed Sanu, Taylor Gabriel, two well-rounded running backs in Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman and then, there’s a guy named Julio Jones and he just happens to be the best wide receiver in football. We’ll all wonder what Matt does for an encore this year.
2. Tom Brady– I’ve said this a lot over the years and rightfully so, but he seems to get better as he’s aged and so many people thought he’d fall off after tearing the ACL in 2008 but he’s accomplished quite a bit since the. I’ll gladly remind you of what’s happened since then. He’s led the Patriots to six straight AFC title games, he’s won another league MVP, surpassed Peyton Manning for the most wins every by a quarterback and let’s not forget, he became the first quarterback ever to win five Super Bowls. Last year was by far the best I’ve ever seen Tom Brady look and he played with a serious vengeance. He missed the first four games because of suspension but when he came back, he let the league know he’s not going anywhere anytime soon. In the twelve games he played in, he threw 28 touchdown passes and a league low, two interceptions and he did all of this at the age of 39. He will always be an MVP candidate for as long as he continues to play, plain and simple and with some new weapons around him in 2017, he could lock this award up sooner rather than later in the season.
3. Aaron Rodgers– I don’t think there’s another guy that’s more valuable to their team than Aaron Rodgers is. The Packers look like a completely different team without him in the mix. With him, you can basically win out and you’d be a game away from the Super Bowl just like we saw last season. He’s still a top five player in the game and just like the man above him that I mentioned, he will always be in the running for this award. The Packers struggled a bit last season and at one point, they were 4-6 and the playoffs seemed to be far on the radar. In their final six games, the Packers won all six to win the division and Rodgers was the catalyst behind the winning streak as he went the rest of the season without throwing an interception. This year will be another year at the office for him where it will lead to another division title and a playoff appearance.
4. Derek Carr– Now, this was my favorite to win the award and he was on pace to do so. He had the Oakland Raiders playing incredible football and they were on pace to win the division and potentially get one of the top seeds in the AFC. Then, he breaks his leg and everything spiraled out of control. The Raiders eventually went from the two seed in the AFC playoffs to the five seed and looked so out of sync without Carr in the huddle. Last year, we got a preview of how good Derek Carr can truly be in the league. I’d love to see this guy pick up where he left off and get the Raiders to the playoffs and lead them to another winning season. He’s a big reason why the silver and black is back.
5. Le’Veon Bell– When he’s 100 percent healthy, he’s the best all-around running back in the NFL and for the first time in his career in 2016, he was finally able to take the field in the playoffs and we were able to see the trio of Big Ben, Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown on the field at the same time when the games meant so much more. He’s the most important piece to this Steelers offense and he’s been their Mr. Everything. He runs it consistently, catches it out the backfield and he blocks. The big question is can he remain on the field for an entire season.
Other Candidates: J.J. Watt, Russell Wilson, Antonio Brown, Julio Jones, Khalil Mack, Von Miller.
