His performance against the Bills, sneaking out a win on the road against the last remaining undefeated team, appears to have put him on the league's radar, so much so that he continues to be the focus of several television shows and podcasts. Unsurprisingly, former Patriots Brian Hoyer and David Andrews can't stop raving about Maye, with Hoyer's latest take sounding like it came straight from a fan's mouth.
Around Week 8, the MVP race starts to follow a predictable script: Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson (if the Ravens are rolling) will almost certainly feature. Between 2015 and 2019, the NFL had four first-time MVP winners Cam Newton, Matt Ryan, Mahomes and Jackson. But in the last five years, only Allen has been a first-time winner (Aaron Rodgers, Mahomes and Jackson were the other victors).
Just as baseball's postseason chase has entered the stretch run, those vying for individual honors are running out of time to make their cases. This is our fourth and final Awards Watch of the regular season, and with that in mind, we've changed up our usual format to narrow the focus of each race to the leading contenders in each category. What races are all but decided? Which ones remain very much up in the air? Let's dig in.