The NFL has a new betting favorite for perhaps its most coveted award heading into Week 14.
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy threw for 314 yards and four touchdowns in a 42-19 trouncing of the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday. The 49ers scored TDs on six consecutive offensive drives to win the rematch of last season’s NFC Championship Game in Philadelphia and improve to 9-3. And in the process, the second-year pro— notoriously “Mr. Irrelevant” in the 2022 NFL Draft—positioned himself as the odds-on favorite for league MVP.
“That’s the 49ers football that we know, that’s the offense that we know,” Purdy said after the game. “When everyone’s doing their part, everything’s clicking. We had some great play calls, everyone just makes plays and does it the right way. We protect the ball, and the defense does their job. That felt good.”
Brock Purdy, #13 of the San Francisco 49ers, on Sunday passes against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Purdy enters Week 14 atop the betting favorites for NFL MVP.
Getty Images/Mitchell Leff/Getty Images
Purdy is a +300 favorite to win the NFL’s 2024 MVP award as of Tuesday afternoon, per DraftKings and Caesars Sportsbooks.
At DraftKings, the former seventh-round pick finds himself ahead of QBs Jalen Hurts (+350), Dak Prescott (+350), Patrick Mahomes (+850), Tua Tagovailoa (+850) and all the other contenders for the award. The Iowa State product is a co-favorite to win the award, along with Prescott, at FanDuel (+300 each). The 23-year-old entered the 2023 season with long-shot +2500 odds to win the award, per BetMGM. Entering Week 13, ESPN Bet had six other quarterbacks ahead of Purdy in the MVP race. Heading into this weekend’s action, there are none.
Purdy’s four touchdown passes against Philadelphia tied a career-high. And a bounce-back performance in the City of Brotherly Love was long overdue. Last season’s NFC title game between the 49ers and Eagles was hampered by Purdy’s elbow injury and San Francisco’s ensuing lack of signal-callers. Philadelphia won the game, 31-7, to win the NFC.
But Vegas thinks this could be the season that Kyle Shanahan’s team advances to Super Bowl Sunday. The 49ers established themselves as title front-runners after defeating the Eagles. San Francisco’s +310 Super Bowl odds are the best in the NFL, right ahead of 10-2 Philly (+550).
“There wasn’t much to last year with this,” Shanahan said after the game. “We were just excited to come out here and play a really good team and play well and get a win.”
After being the last pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, Purdy was forced into the lineup for San Francisco as a rookie. The 6-foot-1, 220-pound quarterback went 5-0 in the regular season and started two playoff games after injuries to Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo. Purdy beat out Lance for the starting gig ahead of the 2023 season.
And “Mr. Irrelevant” has shown he was no one-hit wonder.
Purdy leads all qualified passers in completion percentage (70.2 percent), touchdown percentage (6.9 percent), quarterback rating (116.1), and QBR (75.6), per Pro Football Reference. He has also thrown for 3,185 yards and 23 touchdowns compared to only six interceptions. Because of the stacked nature of San Francisco’s roster, Shanahan’s expertise as a play-caller, and an offensive scheme that thrives on yards-after-catch, Purdy is often tossed aside as a “system QB.” But that’s a label his teammates have scoffed at throughout the season.
“There’s always going to be critics,” running back Christian McCaffrey told reporters earlier this season. “He knows that. Everyone [here] knows that. I like when he plays a little bit edgy with a chip on his shoulder. I kinda hope the critics just keep coming because it p***** him off and he plays really well.”
Purdy, who turns 24 on December 27, would be among the youngest NFL players to ever win MVP, according to USA Today. The names that would be ahead of him? Jim Brown (twice), Lamar Jackson, Dan Marino, Walter Payton and Mahomes.
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