I Calculated the All-Time NFL MVP So You Don’t Have To
Who is The NFL’s All-Time MVP?
Ok I am full prepared to admit that this is an entirely pointless article. Everybody already has their idea of which players are the best to ever do it: Whether you think that Brady and his rings make him the GOAT, or if you think Montana’s flawless Super Bowl record makes him the GOAT. If you’re more of a defensive guy you might think Lawrence Taylor is the GOAT, or if you were born during the Hoover administration you probably think that Don Hutson is the GOAT. All of it really makes zero difference to me. I’m doing this out of pure curiosity. Out of every player since the Associated press started handing out the award in 1957, who has the most first place MVP votes? Is it Christian Ponder? Probably not but who knows, it could be anybody! Let me just outline what I’m thinking here. I am going to go through a list of every single NFL MVP and see who has the most first place votes, and I will name that person MVP. For example lets say there was a guy who played for 20 years and never won an MVP, but he had a span of nine or ten years where he was getting 15 or 20 votes a year and just never winning. Theoretically if that guy exists, he would be the all-time NFL MVP because he has the most cumulative votes. Now, I really hope that guy doesn’t exist because that would make the results of this list dumber than I believe they are already going to be. I have also made the decision not to include the 1960 and 1961 NFL or AFL seasons, as I could not find sufficient data, so both of those years will be left out of the total. I do want to note, that there are some inconclusive numbers for about the first 30 years or so. Not enough to really swing the award, but some vote totals may be a little off. I’m also looking at ONLY Associated Press MVP’s, so NEA and PWFA votes won’t be taken into account. Besides that, anything from the AFL between 1960–1969 or NFL between 1957 and now is fair game, so you better believe you’ll be seeing guys like Namath and Alworth on the list. Before I get into the full investigation though, I want to make some predictions for this list.
Prediction for the Player of the 50’s: Jim Brown
If you have any knowledge of pre-merger football you know who Jim Brown is. You might know him from the time you were gushing about Adrian Peterson or Ezekiel Elliott and your grandfather said, “Yeah those guys are good, but nobody does it like Jim Brown.” He is easily the best player to suit up for the Browns, and before Lebron James came along, probably the best athlete in the history of Cleveland Sports. When Jim Brown was playing, he was the best. There were only three AP NFL MVP awards handed out in the 50’s, and he won two of them, so I’m going to take a wild guess and say he probably has the most votes of this decade by far.
Prediction for the Player of the 60’s: Johnny Unitas
Johnny Unitas was sweet in his day. Even though the quarterback position has changed significantly in the 47 years since Johnny U hung up the cleats, he’s a guy that could truly compete in any era of football. Johnny Unitas was the only person in the AFL and NFL to win multiple MVP awards in the 1960’s and was arguably the greatest player of his era. I would be shocked if it was anybody else.
Prediction for the Player of the 70’s: Terry Bradshaw
The 70’s has ten years and ten different MVP’s, so this one was a complete tossup between several different guys. This one is going to be controversial, but I can explain myself. Yes, I am aware that Ken Stabler, Walter Payton, and Roger Staubach exist, and no I’m not saying Terry is necessarily better than any of them. What I am saying is he was very consistent and on some consistently excellent Steelers teams. Even though guys like Mean Joe Green, Mel Blount, Jack Lambert, and Donnie Shell get a lot of the credit for those great Steeler teams- as they absolutely should- Terry Bradshaw was excellent for those 70’s Steelers as well, and the fact of the matter is, offensive players, and typically quarterbacks win these awards and get the majority of the votes, so that’s why I’ve got Terry here.
Prediction for the Player of the 80’s: Joe Montana
Ok I’m just going to shoot straight with you here, the 80’s are going to be my favorite decade to talk about on the list. The 80’s were an awesome decade for MVP’s. Players from FOUR different positions won the award, an unheard-of level of parity for the award. For reference, since 1990 ONLY running backs and quarterbacks have won the award. Not only did four different positions win the award, only two of them were offensive. So who were the two defensive players that got it? Was it Lawrence Taylor twice? Did Ronnie Lott get one? Reggie white? Ok yeah, LT was obviously one of them, but the other guy wasn’t even a defensive player. So if it wasn’t an offensive player, and it wasn’t a defensive player, whose left? Wait what? A KICKER?! Yeah, in the strike-shortened 1982 season, Washington Kicker Mark Mosely won Most Valuable player. Now, I don’t want to sound like I’m disrespecting Mark. He was 20/21 according to Football Reference- as close to perfect as he could have been and had multiple crucial late-game kicks for Washington that year. Of course we all know about Lawrence Taylor’s 1986 MVP campaign- the last time a defensive player won an MVP, as well as one of the finest seasons by any player on the offensive or defensive side ever. So who do I think is the MVP of the 1980’s, the most bizarre decade for MVP’s ever? I’m going to go with Joe Cool. Montana won all of his Super Bowls in the 80’s (I know that technically Super Bowl XXIV was in 1990, but it was the ’89 season), and was the quarterback for some of the most absurdly dominant offenses ever.
Prediction for the Player of the 90’s: Brett Favre
Brett Favre won three straight MVP’s in the 90’s, there is absolutely no way it isn’t him, but just for kicks, lets go through some of the other options. Steve Young was the quarterback of one of the most prolific offenses of all time and was consistently on contending teams throughout the decade. John Elway was older and wiser in the 90’s and was the quarterback on consistently contending teams. Are you noticing a trend here? If you want to be the MVP, be the quarterback on a contender. My final choice for MVP of the 90’s is Barry Sanders. I will admit that I am INCREDIBLY biased here. Barry Sanders is not only my favorite football player, but my favorite athlete in all of sports history, so I understand if you don’t want to take this seriously, but just hear me out. Barry Sanders was great for basically the entirety of the 90’s, and has the added benefit of carrying otherwise terrible teams to more wins than they should have had, which will get stray MVP votes. Plus, in a decade where four running backs won the award, Barry was consistently a better player than all of them. Now, I understand he’s the only running back in the 90’s who had to share the award, so that hurts his case, but if you look at the other running backs that earned the award, those being Thurman Thomas in 1991, Emmitt Smith in 1993, and Terrell Davis in 1998, Thomas started his decline in the mid-90’s, Davis didn’t even get to the league until the mid 90’s, and Smith is less likely to get votes than Sanders, because he was on some loaded Cowboys teams, and he’s less likely to get votes if his team is good. That leaves sanders, who was in his prime for the entirety of the 90’s, and always the best player on his team.
Prediction for the Player of the 00’s: Peyton Manning
Like Favre in the 90’s, Peyton Manning is the clear winner of the 2000’s. Manning won an absurd four out of ten MVP’s in the 2000’s and holds the all time record for most NFL MVP’s with five. Peyton has to be the runaway winner for the 2000’s, but I just want to go through some possibilities just in case. Brett Favre has one of the longest sustained periods of dominance in NFL history. Favre was an MVP candidate well into the 2000’s, and was getting MVP votes well into his late 30’s. Tom Brady is arguably the greatest player of all time, and lead some of the most dominant NFL teams ever, but more of his MVP years come in the 2010’s, which is why I’m hesitant to think he has the most votes of the 2000’s.
Prediction for the Player of the 2010’s: Tom Brady
First off, I want to say this: Packers fans don’t come for me, I can explain myself. Ok now that we have that out of the way let me explain why I have Tom Brady here. This should not be controversial. Including the season in which he was suspended for four games, Patriots teams lead by Tom Brady won an average of 12.2 games according to football reference. If that doesn’t blow your mind think of it like this. In most NFL seasons, a team that wins 12 or more games will be a top 2 seed in their conference. Needless to say, Brady will get MVP votes because he is always on a contending team, and he always throws a bunch of touchdowns. Brady was also healthy for the entirety of the 2010’s, the only season where he missed significant time being the year he was suspended, which brings me into Aaron Rodgers. Aaron Rodgers is undoubtedly excellent. He’s in a select group of guys replaced a legend and either filled their shoes, or ended up outplaying them. However, the reason I believe Rodgers will have less MVP votes is this- he and Brady both have the same amount of MVP’s for this decade (2), but Brady simply has more healthy seasons. Rodgers missed significant time in both 2013 and 2017 according to Football Reference, which gives Brady a 10–8 lead in healthy seasons over Rodgers. My last piece of evidence, Packers fans you should skip this next part is the 2018 season. According to Football Reference, the Packers went 6–9–1 with Rodgers as the starter. This is another season in which Rodgers wouldn’t get MVP votes, because almost no MVP voter will throw a vote to a guy on a below-.500 team. Besides those two, I would also say that Drew Brees has an opportunity to be a big vote getter for the 2010’s even though he doesn’t have any MVP’s.
Prediction for the Most Votes by a Non-MVP: Drew Brees
Alright this one is going to be controversial, but I’ve got Drew Brees as the all-time vote getter for non-MVP’s. Brees has been a top 3–5 quarterback for essentially his entire tenure in New Orleans, and has led some prolific offenses, but has never won an MVP. Personally, I think Brees is by far the best quarterback to never win the award. Other guys that I believe are in the conversation for most votes are Jerry Rice, and Reggie White, both guys who I believe are the best players at their position.
Prediction for most votes by an MVP: Peyton Manning
This one shouldn’t be controversial, but just in case it is let me explain. Manning has the most MVPs ever with five and received legitimate MVP votes for the vast majority of his nearly 20 years as a starting quarterback. The only way I could see it not being Peyton is if somebody got a bunch of votes in the days where there were more than 50 votes being thrown around.
Player of the 50’s: Johnny Unitas
Wow. I just crunched the numbers, and by one vote, Johnny Unitas has been crowned the MVP of the 50’s. Johnny Unitas had one first place finish, one second place finish, and one third placed finish in MVP voting, whereas Brown has two first place finishes and one third place finish. How is this possible? Well, to be honest there were a lot of close votes. According to the NFL MVP voting sheet, in each of 1957, 1958, and 1959, six total players received votes, and in the 1957 season when Brown won MVP he won the award with a total of 14 votes. For reference, in 1958 when Unitas got second, he got a total of 15 votes. This result seems to be indicative of the early changes and quick expansion of the award, so a guy with less MVPs can have more votes. I would not expect the same results for more recent decades if I had to make a prediction.
Player of the 60’s: Johnny Unitas
Ok at least I got this one right. According the the NFL MVP voting Wordpress, excluding data from 1960 and 1961, and some stray unknown votes, Johnny U is by far the leading vote getter for the 60’s. Even if I did know these votes, it wouldn’t make a difference. Y.A. Tittle and Jim Brown, who tied for second place with 46 votes, weren’t even in the same stratosphere as Johnny Unitas, who finished with a total of 75 MVP votes for the decade. Johnny U ran away with this one, lets move on.
Player of the 70’s: O.J. Simpson
Surprisingly, The Juice is the MVP with 78 votes according to the NFL MVP award voting Wordpress. The first 2,000 yard rusher had an absurd 74 votes to win the award in 1973, and if I had sufficient date for 1975 he would have more. Earl Campbell was very close as well, as he had back to back seasons with 30 or more MVP votes to finish off the decade and rocketed into second place. The guy that I projected to be the MVP, Terry Bradshaw didn’t even finish in the top five most votes, with O.J. Simpson, Walter Payton, Earl Campbell, Ken Stabler, Larry Brown, and Bert Jones all finishing ahead of him.
Player of the 80’s: Joe Montana
Ok, I’m batting .500 so far. Ill be honest though, this vote was way closer than I expected. According to the NFL MVP voting Wordpress, Montana finished with a total of 79 votes, Dan Marino got second with 64, and Joe Theismann got third with 61. Eric Dickerson, Lawrence Taylor, Marcus Allen, and Mark Mosely had the most votes by non-quarterbacks, tallying 53, 41, 39, and 35 votes respectively. As for Montana, I can’t say I’m surprised. He’s arguably the most clutch player in the history of the game, and was on the most consistently great team of the 1980’s, plus he’s the quarterback, and we all know who gets the MVP votes when a team is good.
Player of the 90’s: Steve Young
Dammit, I thought this one was a lock. How in the hell could a three-time MVP not have the most MVP votes? Well, Steve Young is how. The 90’s 49ers were such an exciting team, and Steve Young was a large reason why. Steve Young was ridiculously mobile, and as a passer was just as good. As mentioned earlier with Rodgers, Steve Young is a part of a group of guys that replaced a legend and managed to keep the team’s success going. Steve Young also has a benefit that Favre didn’t, being the team was already set up for success when he took the reins. Yes, the Packers had some pieces for Favre to work with, but nothing on the level of what the 49ers had for Young. Throwing to a prime Jerry Rice helped set him up for success. Young also was getting legitimate MVP votes in more years than just the ones he won with a combined 24 votes in years he didn’t win according to the NFL MVP voting Wordpress, whereas Favre has a total of zero MVP votes in years he didn’t take home MVP.
Player of the 2000’s: Peyton Manning
Ok, this one is a great demonstration of my assumption that if you have the most MVPs, even if they were tightly contested, you will have more votes than anybody else. Manning was a statistical beast in the 2000’s, and according to Football Reference won an average of 11.5 games a year as Colts starter throughout this decade. According to the NFL MVP voting Wordpress, Brady finished with the second most MVP votes, at 67, more than half of Manning’s 152.5 MVP votes. This 67-vote total is carried largely in part by his 2007 season in which he received 49/50 first place MVP votes in a year where he went 16–0 as a starter. Nobody was really close to Brady after that. Ladainian Tomlinson was the third-highest vote getter, receiving 44 first place votes, and Marshall Faulk was close behind him with a total of 41.5 votes. Air Mcnair was also a high vote getter with 21, and Rich Gannon had 24.
Player of the 2010’s: Tom Brady
The 2010’s was a great decade for MVP’s. Six players received 40 or more votes, both defensive players and running backs both had years where they got legitimate MVP votes, but most of all, 2018 and 2019 both were years in which a second year player won the award. According to Wikipedia, this decade also saw the first two unanimous NFL MVPs, 2010 Tom Brady and 2019 Lamar Jackson bookending the decade. As for the total votes, I was actually spot on. Brady and Rodgers were the two highest vote getters, receiving 103 and 81 respectively.
Most Votes by a Non-MVP: Dan Fouts
I never have been so delighted to be wrong in my entire life. Dan Fouts is one of my favorite quarterbacks ever for his role in executing the Air Coryell offense to perfection. According to the NFL MVP voting Wordpress, Fouts got a total of 64 votes in his career, and actually did win an MVP award, just not an AP award, so I couldn’t include it here. Other big vote getters were Jerry Rice (57), Randall Cunningham (53), and Eric Dickerson (53).
Most Votes Ever: Peyton Manning
And here we are folks, the reason why you probably read this article. The most votes of all time is held by none other than The Sheriff, and it really wasn’t all that close. According to the NFL MVP voting Wordpress, Manning finished with a total of 221 votes, the next closest being Tom Brady with 170. There’s probably something symbolic there about how intertwined their careers were, but I’ve already written 3,100 words for this article, and quite frankly I’m ready to wrap it up.
Conclusion: This was entirely pointless, and I probably messed up somewhere. Not in any of the big calculations- I know I got those right, I checked a lot, and no matter what my record as a bad math student shows, I can add like there’s no tomorrow. Now, the website I used, which happens to be the most complete list I could find still has some imperfections ass noted earlier, so if you have newspaper clippings or something with the AP votes and you want to fact check me feel free!
References: https://mvpvoting.wordpress.com/
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/
https://insights.ap.org/whats-new/how-we-count-the-votes-for-the-nfls-top-awards
Follow me on Twitter: @aiden_hamm0nd
