Why Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes making All-Pro team is a good sign for his MVP chances
In his first season as the Chiefs starter, quarterback Patrick Mahomes was named to the NFL All-Pro team last week, which is quite an accomplishment for a young player.
Mahomes was a runaway winner, too, getting 45 of the 50 votes. That’s important to note when it comes to the NFL MVP award, which Mahomes could take home.
Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk reported that the same 50 people who voted for the All-Pro team also pick the other postseason award winners, including the MVP.
Since the 2007 season, the quarterback who was first-team All-Pro also won the MVP award in all but one instance. That was 2012 when Denver’s Peyton Manning finished second to Minnesota running back Adrian Peterson, who collected 30 1/2 votes. Peterson finished that season with 2,097 yards rushing.
This year, however, Mahomes’ main competition is from another quarterback: New Orleans’ Drew Brees. While Rams running back Todd Gurley was a first-team All-Pro, there has been little chatter about his chances to win the MVP award.
As for the voting, the Associated Press reported in 2016 about the process behind the award process, including MVP.
It wrote: “AP doesn’t decide — we just count the ballots. There are 50 media members from around the country who cover the NFL regularly and do all the voting. Some are writers; others are broadcasters. But they’re all picked because they’re the best in the business in covering the sport. They are totally independent of the league itself — no one works for NFL Network, for example — and have varying degrees of reporting experience.
“Well-known voters include former players Troy Aikman (Fox Sports) and Cris Collinsworth (NBC Sports), as well as former coaches Tony Dungy (NBC Sports) and Herm Edwards (ESPN).”
Edwards, the former Chiefs coach who is now coaching Arizona State, has since lost his vote, according to this list of the 50 voters from the 2017 season.
The MVP winner will be announced on Feb. 2 at the NFL Honors show, which is held the day before Super Bowl LIII.
