The NFC North is shaping up as football’s strongest division, with Detroit (10-1), Minnesota (9-2) and Green Bay (8-3) all playoff-primed and very much alive for a chance to stake a claim to the No. 1 seed.
There’s another race that’s neck-and-neck, statistically: Jared Goff’s and Darnold’s case for NFL MVP.
Goff, 30, has a better probability to win the award according to oddsmakers. The argument for him is relatively simple – quarterback of the best team, record-wise, and has the most yards per attempt (9.0) and fourth-quarter comebacks (3) in the league. But the separation between players is objectively small.
Darnold, 27, has competitive stats. In some aspects, he’s outperformed Goff.
At the beginning of the week, Will Ragatz of Minnesota Vikings on SI examined the MVP comparison. Ragatz started by listing various sportsbooks’ favorite candidates: Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Saquon Barkley and Goff, who is around +700 to take home the honors. Darnold has odds as low as +10,000.