Which Minnesota Vikings player has the best chance to be the NFL MVP in 2020?
Prior to Adrian Peterson being named the NFL’s most valuable player in 2012, the last time a Minnesota Vikings player finished a season as the league’s MVP was way back in 1975 when Fran Tarkenton won the trophy.
Former defensive tackle Alan Page is the only other guy to be named the NFL MVP in a Vikings uniform when he earned the honor in 1971. Believe it or not, Minnesota has had more players win the league’s MVP than other prominent franchises like the Dallas Cowboys, Miami Dolphins, New York Giants, and Pittsburgh Steelers.
Heading into the 2020 NFL season, there are a few guys on Minnesota’s current roster that have a chance to end the year as the league’s MVP. Which Vikings player has the best odds to win the award though?
Which Minnesota Vikings player has the highest odds to end 2020 as the MVP?
Of the guys who BetOnline has listed on their 2020 regular season MVP odds, two of them are currently on Minnesota’s roster.
Kirk Cousins has the best MVP odds of any Vikings player right now at 50-1. Not too far behind Cousins though is Minnesota running back Dalvin Cook, who has 66-1 odds to be named the NFL MVP in 2020.
There are 20 players that have better MVP odds than the Vikings quarterback currently including Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes who are, unsurprisingly, the guys with the two best odds of anyone.
Cook has 26 players ahead of him with better MVP odds and he also has the fifth-best odds of any running back in the NFL right now. Only Christian McCaffrey, Derrick Henry, Saquon Barkley, and Ezekiel Elliott have been given a better shot by BetOnline to be named the league’s MVP in 2020 than Cook.
It’s not hard to understand why Cousins currently has better odds than Cook even if the running back is more important to Minnesota’s offense. Since the 2000 season, only four running backs have been named the NFL MVP, and the last to do it was Peterson in 2012.
Compared to quarterbacks, running backs basically have to go out and have a superhuman-like performance in order to win the most valuable player award.
Cook is certainly capable of putting up some very impressive numbers in 2020. But does he have what it takes to have an MVP-caliber performance during the upcoming season?