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