These players should be in the NFL MVP discussion but haven’t been so far.
Every year, there are usually a few players always mentioned in the NFL MVP discussion. These are players like Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Rodgers and, despite never winning the award before, Russell Wilson. These three are also in the running to win the title this year but there have been some players who aren’t getting the respect they deserve in the NFL MVP race.
Whether they’re not a quarterback or just are getting overshadowed, these five players have hardly been mentioned at all when the discussions of Most Valuable Player arise. It’s true that quarterbacks nearly always win MVP, but that shouldn’t always be the case.
So, let’s dive into the list of dark horse candidates for NFL MVP at the midway point of the 2020 NFL season.
This one is definitely farfetched, but only because Travis Kelce is a tight end and there’s never been a tight end as the MVP. That’s because if the tight end is having a stellar season, that more than likely means the quarterback is as well because he’s the one throwing the ball to the tight end.
The argument here is that that’s not always the case. Look at Tony Gonzalez in all of his years with the Kansas City Chiefs. He’d consistently put up 1,000-yard seasons and those teams had nobodies at the quarterback position.
Kelce has been much more fortunate when it comes to who he’s had at quarterback, mostly catching passes from Patrick Mahomes and Alex Smith since the start of his career. Kelce has made the most of a good situation too and is on his way to a fifth straight season of 1,000+ receiving yards.
Kelce currently has 769 yards receiving and six touchdowns on the year, but the most important part of his game is how good he’s been at actually catching the football. The Chiefs tight end hasn’t dropped the ball in 80 targets (the graphic below was from prior to this week’s game).
https://twitter.com/PFF_Fantasy/status/1325468632588185607?s=20
I know that Kelce has no shot at winning NFL MVP because of the position he plays and that’s too bad. Without him, the Chiefs offense wouldn’t be as explosive. He’s Patrick Mahomes’ go-to and if Mahomes is in the running for the title, Kelce should be too.