Everyone’s talking about the NFL MVP race between New England Patriots QB Drake Maye and Los Angeles Rams QB Matthew Stafford, especially now that the regular season has ended and resumés for both players in 2025 are set in stone.
Plenty of analysts have weighed in on the race, with Tom Brady choosing Stafford and JJ Watt choosing Maye as two examples.
Watt’s argument was based on the traditional meaning of the Most Valuable Player award, with an emphasis on “valuable.” Watt basically said that the Patriots would be worse off if you removed Maye from their team than if you did the same thing with Stafford and the Rams.
Barstool’s Ryen Russillo made a similar argument in advocating for Maye recently during a new episode of The Ryen Russillo Show.
“Drake Maye is my MVP,” Russillo said. “I battled with it because of the schedule. … But thinking about Maye … having, like, a damn near perfect season, and what he means to this Pats franchise and who they are and this kind of turnaround … If you’re taking Maye off of this team versus taking Stafford off the Rams, that would be my closing argument, and ultimately why I would land on Maye as the MVP for ’25.”
Story continues below advertisement
In his second NFL year, Maye started all 17 games, guiding the Pats to a 14-3 record and securing a playoff berth for the first time since 2021. He completed 354 of 492 passes for 4,394 yards, 31 touchdowns, and just eight interceptions, earning a league-leading 113.5 passer rating. Maye also rushed for 450 yards and four scores on 103 carries. Maye topped the NFL in completion percentage, EPA, and QBR.
Featured image via David Butler II-Imagn Images
