[sc:NFL250 ]Super Bowl 50 is still about a month away, yet it’s never too early to start speculating as for who will emerge as the best player from the NFL’s grandiose championship game.
If the regular season is any indication, the top performers from this campaign who are still in the playoff hunt are also the frontrunners for the Super Bowl MVP award.
But who exactly are these elite players looking to standout on the brightest stage in all of sports? Let’s have a look below at some of the prime candidates as well as the often-overlooked stars that could very well dominate in Santa Clara.
Afterwards, sink your teeth into some more intense football betting action with our coverage on the Super Bowl 50 hopefuls, as well as the possible scenarios that are in store for the career of fabled and troubled Johnny Manziel.
[sc:Football ]Super Bowl 50 MVP Props Update
Favorites
Cam Newton
[sc:NFL240banner ]Career-highs in passing touchdowns (35) and passer rating (99.4), career-low 10 interceptions for the season, and 636 yards and 10 more TDs from the ground. Those are the numbers from Cam Newton’s banner 2015-16 campaign, which in turn earned him the price of +300 as the overall favorite to win the Super Bowl MVP in February.
More importantly, Newton has led his Carolina Panthers to a 15-win season, and helped the team secure a first-round bye and home field advantage throughout the postseason. The Panthers are in a terrific position to make it all the way to Levi’s Stadium, and who better than the dazzling dabber himself to launch Carolina to the apex of NFL supremacy?
Tom Brady
Not so fast, Cam. In case you’ve forgotten, Tom Brady is still in the playoffs. You know, that same Brady who already has four Super Bowl titles and three Super Bowl MVP awards in his back pocket?
What good ol’ Tommy boy has done for the New England Patriots – just as he had always done for much of his 16 seasons as a pro – is put up gaudy numbers with whatever weapons he has at his disposal. And this season may even be his most embattled outing yet considering how many players have cycled in and out of the New England receiving corps due to an insane number of injuries.
In spite of the Pats’ health issues in the passing game, Brady still managed hit 4,000 yards passing for the fourth-consecutive season and threw just seven picks all season long. And since we’re talking about who’ll become SB 50’s head honcho, it stands to great reason that Brady is utterly deserving of the current +300 odds (same with Newton) at becoming an NFL record-breaking four-time Super Bowl MVP awardee.
Sleepers
Ben Roethlisberger
No stranger to postseason heroics, Ben Roethlisberger and his Pittsburgh Steelers certainly make for a dangerous partnership in the playoffs as we speak. Even though Big Ben only started 12 games this season, he still managed to rack up 3,938 passing yards and 21 scores.
Roethlisberger’s postseason resume is just as impressive, as he has 3,484 yards 21 TDs through the air over 15 career postseason games. And in the Steelers’ two Super Bowl championships with him at the helm, he never won MVP honors on both occasions, which makes Ben all the more determined to nab his first this February and defy the +1,200 odds against him at winning that elusive award.
Peyton Manning
Much like Roethlisberger, future Hall-of-Famer Peyton Manning (+1,500) has the postseason experience and credentials to back-up his sleeper status with the oddsmakers, with the exception being that he had already won the Super Bowl MVP award back in his lone championship victory in 2007.
However, Manning’s age has finally caught up to him this regular season, having started just half of the Denver Broncos’ games (six missed games overall) as he dealt with a torn plantar fascia on his left foot.
Then again, seeing that this could very well be the 40-year-old’s last and best shot at another Lombardi Trophy before throwing in the towel for good, many fans are still anticipating and praying for a fairy-tale ending for one of the greatest football players to ever step foot in the gridiron.
For as long as Denver’s resurgent running game and its tough-as-nails defense backs him up throughout the playoffs and unto the Promised Land, all Manning has to do is give one last outstanding performance in Santa Clara to win his second Super Bowl MVP award and finish his career on the highest of highs.
Long Shot
Greg Olsen
A huge part of the Carolina Panthers and Cam Newton’s success this season can be attributed to none other than Greg Olsen. The nine-year tight end was virtually the only reliable and most-productive threat in Carolina’s passing game, with single-season career-highs in receiving yardage (1,104), yards per catch (14.3) and touchdowns (seven).
Then again, Newton’s impact in Carolina’s offense is much more tremendous visibly and statistically, and Olsen also has one key factor working against him: history. Out of all the previous Super Bowl MVP awardees, not a single tight end earned that coveted distinction.
We all know that Olsen will give his all this postseason in an attempt to deliver the Panthers their first Super Bowl title, but the prospects of him living up to his great billing and actually winning MVP honors at +2,500 ultimately passes off as a risky endeavor with a relatively unexceptional reward.
Ready with your own prediction for Super Bowl 50’s MVP? Create a betting account now to place your stakes on your main man before the postseason kicks off this weekend.
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