NFL analysis: Myles Garrett set to make history as MVP talk hots up
Cleveland Browns’ Myles Garrett is on course to break one of the NFL’s most talked-about records this season, but why is he not in the conversation for the league’s MVP?
As it stands, Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford is a short-priced favourite - just 4/9 with Unibet - to be named the league’s best player.
There is no doubt that Stafford is having a standout campaign, and few believe he will not take the crown, even at this stage.
But could this be the year we see a non-QB take the honours, something almost unheard of in the modern-day NFL?
Sports News Blitz’s Graeme Bailey explores…
Why non-quarterback MVPs are so rare
Just four non-QBs have taken the sport’s biggest honour this century in the shape of four running backs: Marshall Faulk, Shaun Alexander, LaDainian Tomlinson and the last of the quartet, Adrian Peterson, who took the honour in 2012.
Indeed, this year there is a RB with a real chance in the shape of the Indianapolis Colts’ Jonathan Taylor, who is having a career-best year and is just 16/1 to win with Unibet.
So what about the league’s best defensive player? Myles Garrett is just 2/15 to be named NFL Defensive Player of the Year for the second time, having previously won in 2023.
He is odds-on to capture the NFL season sacks record - something that has stood since 2001, when New York Giants legend Michael Strahan set the record at 22.5.
Pittsburgh Steelers edge TJ Watt came close in 2021, but he could only level it.
However, Garrett is firmly on course to beat that mark. With just six games left, he needs just five sacks to beat it.
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A historic season that still isn’t shifting the odds
Garrett is coming off a brilliant stretch of form as he has 12 sacks in his last four games, something that has never been done before in NFL history.
Indeed, Garrett is racking up historic feats and is the first player in NFL history with 12+ sacks in six consecutive seasons.
But with all that in mind, surely Garrett is under consideration to be the first defensive player to win MVP since Lawrence Taylor back in 1986.
A number of people are calling for it…
Yet, bookmakers do not give Garrett a chance.
Despite his near legendary season, you can get 250/1 - remarkable.
In few other sports in the world does the position count against the fact that someone is actually the best player.
