Tom Brady a Bigger Favorite to Win Third NFL MVP Award Following Carson Wentz Injury

Bad news for the Patriots: When Tom Brady has previously won the NFL MVP award, New England has not won the Super Bowl in any of those campaigns.

It has not been good luck for the New England Patriots when quarterback Tom Brady wins the NFL MVP award.

The Patriots have not won any of their five Super Bowls in the two years he previously won the award, and no player has won the Vince Lombardi Trophy and NFL MVP honors in the same year since Kurt Warner accomplished the feat following the 1999 campaign.

Brady is an overwhelming -160 favorite (bet $160 to win $100) to take home his third MVP award this season at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.

A season-ending ACL injury for quarterback Carson Wentz of the Philadelphia Eagles has only improved Brady’s MVP odds. Wentz suffered the injury in last week’s 43-35 road win over the Los Angeles Rams, and he has fallen down to the +750 fourth choice (bet $100 to win $750) even though he has virtually no shot to take home the award because he can no longer pad his stats.

Jumping up in the mix as top contenders and challengers for Brady are quarterback Russell Wilson of the Seattle Seahawks and wide receiver Antonio Brown of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Both Wilson and Brown are +600 co-second choices, with the latter an intriguing possibility considering only Jerry Rice has won the award at that position.

Brown’s odds have moved significantly from +5000 over the previous three weeks.

After Wentz, three other players with a shot to win NFL MVP are all quarterbacks listed at +1200—Ben Roethlisberger of the Steelers, Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints and Philip Rivers of the Los Angeles Chargers. None of them have won the award before, and their performances in this week’s games may play a big factor in the voting.

Pittsburgh hosts New England on Sunday, and Brady cannot afford another loss if he is going to win MVP after getting outplayed by counterpart Jay Cutler of the Miami Dolphins in a 27-20 setback on Monday Night Football. If Brady falters, Roethlisberger and Brown could move even higher.

Rivers and Wilson also have huge divisional games on tap Saturday against the Kansas City Chiefs and Sunday versus the Los Angeles Rams, respectively. And Brees gets to improve his numbers by playing the New York Jets.