![\"Cincinnati](\"https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,w_5107,h_2872,x_0,y_0\/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto\/images\/ImagnImages\/mmsport\/all_bengals\/01jy40emjx59raek3xq8.jpg\")
<\/p>\nClose to the MVP last season.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow (9) looks on at Bengals Mini Camp inside Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati on Thursday, June 12, 2025. \/ Albert Cesare\/The Enquirer \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n CINCINNATI \u2014\u00a0<\/strong>Joe Burrow is one of the top candidates to win his first MVP award this fall\u00a0and\u00a0Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer\u00a0is picking him\u00a0to take it home.<\/p>\n Burrow finished fourth in MVP voting last year while taking home the Comeback Player of the Year Award for the second time.<\/p>\n “The wild thing is that he could have won it last year, in a season when the Bengals didn\u2019t even make the playoffs,”\u00a0Breer wrote. “He threw more yards (4,918) and touchdowns (43) than anyone\u00a0else,\u00a0and had the most throws (652) and completions (460), too, while maintaining the fourth-highest completion percentage (70.6%) in all of football. His passer rating of 108.5 was third. And he accomplished all that with the NFL\u2019s 30th-ranked run game alongside\u00a0him,\u00a0and the league\u2019s 25th-ranked defense playing opposite him\u2014giving him a heavy burden week-to-week. That\u2019s without even getting into Tee Higgins\u2019s\u00a0health,\u00a0or Ja\u2019Marr Chase\u2019s contract standoff, which forced Cincinnati to integrate younger players at the receiver spots on the fly.<\/p>\n “Now, Josh Allen was\u00a0richly\u00a0<\/em>deserving of MVP last\u00a0year,\u00a0in lifting the Bills in their first post\u2013Stefon Diggs season. Similarly, Lamar Jackson was a very worthy runner-up.\u00a0So\u00a0I\u2019m not saying\u00a0there was some injustice done. But\u00a0it\u2019s common that\u00a0a guy will have an MVP-worthy\u00a0year,\u00a0and then actually get the award the year after (Allen\u2019s an example of it). And in the end, I\u00a0do\u00a0think the Bengals will wind up winning 12 or so\u00a0games,\u00a0after the offense had its healthiest offseason in years, which will make Burrow\u2019s body of work pretty hard to overlook.”<\/p>\n Burrow\u00a0currently\u00a0holds the third-best consensus betting odds to win MVP at +624 behind Jackson (+550) and Allen (+600).<\/p>\n Things\u00a0are set up\u00a0for him to have another MVP profile this fall if that defense can strengthen up a bit more.<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Close to the MVP last season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cincinnati-bengals"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Joe](\"https:\/\/img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net\/tenant\/amp\/entityid\/AA1tHSn4.img?w=2560&h=1782&m=4&q=35\")