Eagles star DeVonta Smith, Carson Wentz have equal odds to win NFL MVP

At this point, you’ve probably accepted the fact that, unless we’re talking about the Philadelphia Eagles‘ quarterback (or their running back position in some rare instances), it’s hopeless to think that anyone else on the roster has any chance of winning league MVP. The recent snubbing of Cooper Kupp has proven that. Seriously, what else could he have done?

It’s sad, but it’s true. The MVP trophy, regardless of what it’s supposed to represent, is now an award given to the quarterback who has had the best year, but only if his team is winning, or it’s given to the quarterback on pro football’s best team. Those are the choices.

The last non-quarterback to win the award was Adrian Peterson in 2012, and he was the first non-quarterback to win the award since Shaun Alexander and LaDainian Tomlinson won the award in 2005 and 2006 respectively. No wide receiver has gotten a sniff since Joe Montana won the Associated Press’s MVP Award in 2000 while Eagles legend Randall Cunningham won the Pro Football Writers of America’s MVP Award and Jerry Rice took home Sporting News MVP honors.

Over time, we’ve viewed the AP trophy as THE trophy, but just in case you’re wondering, Jerry Rice never won the AP trophy. Think about that for a second.

Here’s what that means. T.J. Edwards, as talented as you are and even though you’ve been one of this team’s MVPs, that means you can hang it up. Darius Slay, you’re, without question, one of the top five cornerbacks in the game, but you have no shot.

Former Eagles QB Carson Wentz and star WR, DeVonta Smith, have equal odds of becoming MVP.

Whether we like how the National Football League defines value or not, the only member of the Philadelphia Eagles roster with any chance of winning league MVP is Jalen Hurts, and according to WynnBET and FanSided’s betting arm, BetSided, who recently shared the opening NFL MVP Odds for 2022, Jalen’s odds of doing so stand at +5000 at the time of this story being written and published.

That isn’t even the best part of the story though. It’s the former Eagles QB’s odds that stand out from some of his other peers at the position (and it isn’t for a good reason).

The Eagles have a star on their hands in DeVonta Smith. We can also say this. Despite the fact that he’s fallen off of a cliff, become an easy target, and has no one to blame but himself, Philadelphia got some decent work out of Carson Wentz… for a little while anyway.

Hopefully, by now, you’ve come to the realization that you’ve overvalued him because he beat up on the NFL’s worst division at the end of the 2019 regular season to get his team to the playoffs, but even still, he’s had his moments. It would have been interesting to see him play with DeVonta while he was in his prime, but goodness, when was that? His second season?

Following a decent but up-and-down season with the Indianapolis Colts that, ultimately, ended in a thud, it appears that Indy will move on from Wentz after a single season. For now, the odds of him winning the NFL’s 2022 MVP trophy stand at +15000. That puts him on equal footing with guys like Travis Kelce, Ezekiel Elliott, Saquon Barkley CeeDee Lamb, and, yes, DeVonta Smith.

Now, think about what you read earlier (and probably thought about since the Super Bowl). If Cooper Kupp can produce an almost perfect season and come up short in the minds of voters, the only hope for DeVonta to strike MVP gold would be for him to win the triple crown himself and, possibly, catch a touchdown pass in every Eagles victory.

So. how do we weigh this? Should we complain that the word ‘value’ has been defined incorrectly and discuss renaming the award, or do we talk about how the Birds dodged a bullet, how the Carson Wentz supporters were dead wrong, and how his recent MVP odds are evidence of how far he’s fallen?

Maybe you can decide on that one. Here’s where we’ll leave this, and this is probably most important. DeVonta Smith has a chance to be one of the greatest Eagles wide receivers ever, and Carson Wentz could be on his way to becoming a career backup.