What do the Texans, Cardinals, Saints, Buccaneers and Jaguars all have in common?
None of those NFL franchises have ever produced a league MVP winner. Houston and Jacksonville admittedly deserve some more slack than the rest of the group, as they entered the NFL as expansion organizations in 2002 and 1995, respectively.
Most of those teams probably don’t have an opportunity to buck the trend in the upcoming season. Let’s face it: MVP is a quarterback award, and Kyler Murray, Derek Carr and Baker Mayfield don’t really jump out as signal-callers who could unequivocally separate themselves from the rest of the pack.
But the same can’t be said for C.J. Stroud. Stroud is coming off a tremendous rookie season in which he earned a Pro Bowl selection and led the Texans to their first playoff win since the 2019 campaign.
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On the latest episode of NESN’s “Foxboro Rush” podcast, George Balekji and Travis Thomas were challenged to pick which of the aforementioned franchises has the best shot at crowning its first-ever MVP in 2024. The hosts agreed on the Texans entirely because of Stroud, who’s poised to avoid a sophomore slump and put together another impressive campaign.
But that wasn’t the only take the duo shared on Monday’s episode. Balekji and Thomas also each identified which 2023 last-place team has the best opportunity to win its respective division this season.
You can hear everything they had to say in the YouTube and Spotify embeds above.
Featured image via Nathan Ray Seebeck/USA TODAY Sports Images
