It’s never too early to begin talking about the MVP race, right?
Sticking to that belief, Bovada released their opening odds for the 2017 NFL MVP award today, and numbers one and two are about as obvious and expected as it gets. The list is rightly heavily-weighted toward quarterbacks, and the Colts’ Andrew Luck shows up tied for the ninth-best opening odds, at 25/1. Here’s the list:
Tom Brady 4/1
Aaron Rodgers 7/1
Derek Carr 9/1
Dak Prescott 12/1
Ben Roethlisberger 12/1
Russell Wilson 12/1
Matt Ryan 16/1
Ezekiel Elliott 20/1
Drew Brees 25/1
Andrew Luck 25/1
Cam Newton 25/1
David Johnson 33/1
Marcus Mariota 33/1
Sam Bradford 50/1
Antonio Brown 50/1
Kirk Cousins 50/1
Julio Jones 50/1
Eli Manning 50/1
Carson Palmer 50/1
Adrian Peterson 50/1
Philip Rivers 50/1
Matt Stafford 50/1
Odell Beckham Jr. 66/1
Rob Gronkowski 66/1
Alex Smith 66/1
Ryan Tannehill 66/1
J.J. Watt 66/1
Jameis Winston 66/1
Blake Bortles 100/1
Andy Dalton 100/1
Joe Flacco 100/1
T.Y. Hilton 100/1
Marshawn Lynch 100/1
LeSean McCoy 100/1
Von Miller 100/1
DeMarco Murray 100/1
Carson Wentz 100/1
You’ll notice that T.Y. Hilton also appears at 100/1 odds, but when you have the same odds as Blake Bortles, Andy Dalton, Joe Flacco, and Carson Wentz (among others), it essentially means that you’re not expected to win the award but have to be on the list anyway.
Luck certainly deserves to be in the conversation for the MVP award. He’s played at a high level - in 2016 he threw for 4,240 yards and 31 touchdowns - and is an incredibly important player to the franchise. The Colts depend on Luck arguably as much as any team depends on their quarterback, and that works in his favor when discussing the most valuable player award. But it also seems like team success has to go along with it, so it should probably be stated that if the Colts make a return to the playoffs, Luck will be in the MVP conversation. He’ll be the one leading them there, and a playoff appearance might be enough to get him noticed in that talk.
There’s a long way to go before the award is decided, but at least according to the oddsmakers, Andrew Luck is in the top ten of MVP favorites.