NFL MVP 2018: Aaron Donald 1 of 3 Rams among top-6 favorites
Cameron DaSilva
[
theramswire.usatoday.com]
Only two defensive players in NFL history have won MVP: Alan Page in 1971 and Lawrence Taylor in 1986. Behind his 16.5 sacks and 20 tackles for loss with four games remaining, Aaron Donald is attempting become the third.
He’s been on a ridiculous pace the past six games to vault his name into the conversation, racking up 12.5 sacks, 16 tackles for loss and 24 quarterback hits in that span. He would rank among the top three in the NFL in each category if you compared his stats in the last six games to the entire season of every other player.
As a result of his incredible second half of the season, Donald is now squarely in the MVP conversation. And not just for the sake of being in it. He has a legitimate chance to win the award with Bovada giving him the fifth-best odds of any player – tied with Jared Goff at 25/1.
Drew Brees leads the way at 1/2, followed by Patrick Mahomes (3/2), Todd Gurley (20/1) and Philip Rivers (20/1).
It’s remarkable that he’s even gotten to this point after starting the season with no sacks, no tackles for loss and just one quarterback hit in the first three games. Now, he leads the NFL in each department.
Donald is getting a lot of MVP hype right now, but the Rams have three of the top six favorites to win the award, which is hard to believe. Jared Goff needs to light up the box score in the final four weeks with his stats looking inferior to Mahomes’, while Gurley has to keep up the pace he’s on and get a little help from Brees and Mahomes.
No matter who wins it, just having three players in the top six is absolutely incredible.
