NFL 2018 MVP: Aaron Rodgers Favored Over Tom Brady, Carson Wentz, Drew Brees To Win Award

Players around the league recently voted Aaron Rodgers as the NFL’s 10th best player. Don’t tell that to the oddsmaker, who have made the Green Bay Packers’ quarterback the favorite to be recognized as the top player for the 2018 season.

Rodgers is still viewed by many as the greatest player in football after he missed more than half of last season with a broken collarbone. He was named the NFL MVP in both 2011 and 2014, and the veteran has a significant lead as the highest-rated passer of all time with a 103.8 rating.

Tom Brady is third in NFL history with a 97.6 career passer rating. He’s also the reigning MVP and has finished atop the league’s Top 100 rankings in each of the last two years. Brady has won the MVP award three times in the last eight seasons, and he hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down at 40 years old. The New England Patriots’ quarterback has posted a 102.2 passer rating or better with no worse than a 4:1 touchdown-to-interception ratio in each of the last three years.

Carson Wentz is third on the list of 2018 MVP candidates. He received two first-place votes last season, even though he missed nearly a quarter of the season with a torn ACL.

You’ve got to go through 17 quarterbacks before you get to the first non-quarterback with the best MVP odds. Le’Veon Bell, Todd Gurley and David Johnson all have the same odds. Gurley was second in the 2017 voting. Running back Ezekiel Elliott got six votes in 2016.

Adrian Peterson was the last running back to win the award, doing it in the 2012 season. A wide receiver hasn’t been named MVP since Jerry Rice was honored for his play in the 1987 season.

Here’s a look at the opening 2018 NFL MVP betting odds, courtesy of Bovada.lv:

Aaron Rodgers   13/2

Tom Brady   7/1

Carson Wentz   19/2

Drew Brees   15/1

Russell Wilson   15/1

Jimmy Garoppolo   20/1

Cam Newton   20/1

Matt Ryan   20/1

Deshaun Watson   20/1

Kirk Cousins   22/1

Jared Goff   22/1

Philip Rivers   22/1

Ben Roethlisberger   25/1

Derek Carr   28/1

Andrew Luck   30/1

Dak Prescott   30/1

Matthew Stafford   30/1

Le’Veon Bell   40/1

Todd Gurley   40/1

David Johnson   40/1

Marcus Mariota   40/1

Antonio Brown   50/1

Ezekiel Elliott   50/1

Case Keenum   50/1

Eli Manning   50/1

Jameis Winston   50/1

Patrick Mahomes   55/1

Saquon Barkley   60/1

Leonard Fournette   60/1

Kareem Hunt   60/1

LeSean McCoy  60/1

Alex Smith   60/1

Blake Bortles  66/1

Alvin Kamara   66/1

Julio Jones   70/1

Joe Flacco   75/1

Mitch Trubisky   90/1

Andy Dalton   100/1

Devonta Freeman   100/1

AJ Green   100/1

Rob Gronkowski   100/1

DeAndre Hopkins   100/1

J.J. Watt   100/1

Sam Bradford  125/1

Nick Foles   125/1

Tyrod Taylor   125/1