Lamar Jackson and the Frontrunners for the NFL MVP Award in 2026

Back in 2019, a 23-year-old Lamar Jackson threw for 3,127 yards and ran for 1,206 more, becoming the first quarterback in NFL history to clear 1,000 rushing yards in a season. That year, he became the first man ever to win the NFL MVP award unanimously, and four years later — after the doubters had piled up courtesy of two injury-shortened years — the former Louisville Cardinal answered with 24 touchdowns against seven interceptions, a 13-4 record, and a second MVP that confirmed the first one wasn’t a fluke.

Jackson and the Ravens Implode in 2025

None of that made 2025 easier to watch. Hamstring, back, ankle, and toe injuries limited Jackson to 13 games, and by the time he was right, Baltimore’s margin for error had evaporated. He finished with 2,549 yards, 21 touchdowns, seven interceptions, 349 rushing yards and two more scores — modest by his own standard. Baltimore had entered the year as a legitimate Super Bowl favorite off a 12-5 campaign, but stumbled to 8-9, missing the playoffs for just the second time in Jackson’s career and the first since 2021, needing only a made field goal in Week 18 against Pittsburgh to win the AFC North outright. Rookie kicker Tyler Loop missed from 44 yards, and the season ended on the sourest of notes.

Will we see MVP Lamar Jackson return this season?

He is +850 to win MVP pic.twitter.com/2ICO019yza

— Bovada (@BovadaOfficial) August 3, 2026

What followed felt almost unthinkable to a fan base that had watched John Harbaugh patrol the sideline for 18 years. Two days after that Pittsburgh loss, Steve Bisciotti fired the only head coach this era of Ravens football had ever known. Harbaugh leaves with a 180-113 record, 12 playoff berths, and a Super Bowl, but NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported the real reason was simpler and more uncomfortable: Harbaugh had lost the locker room, and the fracture started with Jackson before spreading further.

But that was 2025, and the 2026 season is now here. As ever, online betting sites make Jackson an MVP contender, but who do they think are his biggest rivals for the biggest solo prize in the game? Let’s take a look.

Josh Allen

No quarterback carries more institutional respect around the league right now than Josh Allen. The 2024 MVP is the offseason consensus pick as the league’s best, and 2025 didn’t dent that, even in defeat. The latest NFL lines at Bovada make him the clear +600 favorite to claim the MVP prize for the second time in three seasons, thanks to him throwing for 3,668 yards and running for 579 more with 14 rushing scores, all while quietly playing through a fractured fifth metatarsal until Buffalo’s season ended in a 33-30 overtime gut-punch to Denver in the divisional round.

He walked out of that brutal loss at Mile High in a boot with tears running down his face after he’d “let his teammates down.” Four turnovers will do that, even on a broken bone. Is there a crueler thread than “13 seconds,” repeated AFC title losses to Kansas City, and now a walk-off pick in overtime?

Buffalo’s answer to yet another postseason disaster was to blow everything up. Sean McDermott is out after nine seasons; Joe Brady, his 36-year-old OC, is in and will lead the Bills into their brand-new Highmark Stadium home. The front office added Bradley Chubb and C.J. Gardner-Johnson on defense and traded for DJ Moore. A healthy Allen, backed by a fresher staff, gives Buffalo its best runway yet toward the Super Bowl that’s eluded the franchise since losing four straight in the early ‘90s. Should he deliver, then that second MVP nod may be hard to ignore.

Lamar Jackson

Around Baltimore, the case barely needs making. What’s missing is the Super Bowl trip that would silence the doubters, and 2025’s wreckage didn’t just cost Jackson a shot at one — it cost him his coach, his coordinator, and the version of the Ravens he’d known his whole career.

A Baltimore Sun column alleged Jackson had been staying up late playing video games and falling asleep in team meetings; both Jackson and Harbaugh denied it flatly, with the dual-threat QB calling it “just noise” and noting he sits in the front row. True or not, it surfaced at the worst time, as Todd Monken — who later admitted he didn’t coach Jackson well enough — dealt with his own strained dynamic with his quarterback before leaving to become Cleveland’s head coach.

Enter Jesse Minter, plucked off the Chargers’ defensive staff and back in the building where his NFL career began under Harbaugh in 2017. He inherits a locker room that reportedly still trusts Jackson more than it trusted the coach who developed him, plus a retooled offensive line, added receiver size, and Derrick Henry and Mark Andrews still in the fold. Baltimore’s bet is simple: a healthy, motivated two-time MVP with something to prove, playing for a staff with no history to defend, is exactly the profile that wins the award back.

Joe Burrow

The word doing the most work in Joe Burrow’s MVP case is “if.” When healthy, he’s spoken of as one of the three best quarterbacks in the sport right now. He’s the owner of the NFL’s highest career completion percentage and the quarterback who dragged Cincinnati to Super Bowl LVI in his first full season as a starter. But 2025 delivered his third major injury in six seasons, a Grade 3 turf toe tear on a Week 2 sack that required surgery and nine missed games. When he did play, he was excellent — 1,809 yards, 17 touchdowns, a 100.7 rating across eight starts — yet Cincinnati finished still 6-11, missing the playoffs for a third straight season.

The Bengals responded with an aggressive defensive overhaul led by the uncharacteristic blockbuster trade for Dexter Lawrence, while locking up Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins on extensions, banking that a healthy Burrow changes everything. Zac Taylor’s job security is tied to the results. If Burrow’s body cooperates for seventeen games, his ceiling might be the highest on this list. History says that’s still the question nobody can answer with confidence.

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