Vet Stafford may be MVP king

The NFL regular season has ended and the MVP debate looks likely to be between youth and experience as quarterbacks Drake Maye and Matthew Stafford trade excellence at the heart of Super Bowl contenders.

It looks like another close race with no clear front-runner.  Playoff results won’t matter because it’s a regular-season award. Winners of the AP NFL awards will be revealed on February 5.

Veteran Stafford, 37, had an outstanding season for the Los Angeles Rams, leading them to a 12-5 record and the NFC’s No. 5 seed. Maye led the New England Patriots (14-3) to a 10-win turnaround and the AFC’s No. 2 seed in only his second season.

Stafford was first in the NFL with 4,707 yards and 46 touchdowns. His passer rating of 109.2 was second only to Maye, who finished at 113.5. Maye, 23, had 4,394 yards passing and 31 touchdowns. Both threw eight interceptions. Maye had the higher completion percentage, 72% to 65%.

Running back Christian McCaffrey is also a contender after an outstanding season in which he helped the injury-depleted San Francisco 49ers (12-5) overcome losing several key players and going long stretches without QB Brock Purdy.  A running back hasn’t won the MVP award since Adrian Peterson in 2012.

While Stafford, who is in his 17th season, has expertly steered a Championship roster into frontrunner territory again, Maye has accelerated New England ahead of schedule in their new chapter under Mike Vrabel.

“It’s like Stafford has found the fountain of youth,” said Sky Sports NFL’s Jeff Reinebold. “He plays with such a childlike joy. You judge a quarterback by what he can do when he has weapons, but you judge him more closely by what he does when those weapons aren’t available to him.

“For a guy to play at his age, the way he’s playing and with all of the changes that they’ve had in Los Angeles in the time that he’s been there, certainly I can’t think of a guy who is more deserving of the MVP award.”

Maye led the Patriots to their first AFC East division title since 2019, the final season of Tom Brady’s glittering career with the Patriots. Replacing Brady is an impossible task, but in Maye, the Patriots seem to have found their long-term answer.