Since the end of the 2025 season, and even before then, there has been a lot of debate around who should win the MVP Award: Drake Maye or Matthew Stafford. For the most part, the majority have said the 17-year veteran, as a lifetime achievement award, whereas a few correct people have argued it was clearly the Patriots' quarterback.
The problem is that it appears Stafford is on his way to winning the award on Thursday night, based chiefly on feelings rather than statistical analysis, which makes analyst Mina Kimes' recent explanation of why she voted for Maye even better.
Not only did she cite stats and reasoning behind her decision, but she put fellow analyst and Stafford's friend, Dan Orlovsky, to shame.
Although he tried to argue immediately that she was wrong, Kimes didn't stutter and spoke the truth, even though most voters wouldn't have chosen the most qualified candidate and would have gone with whoever they felt had the least chance of winning it again.
Two great MVP candidates—here’s why I voted for Maye. pic.twitter.com/WhSrE59GcX
— Mina Kimes (@minakimes) February 5, 2026
It's about time someone finally defended Maye in this conversation, especially since the current dialogue around him going into Super Bowl LX has been unfair and dismissive.
Mina Kimes didn't mince words in arguing why Drake Maye is the rightful MVP
Over the last several years, the meaning of Most Valuable Player has lost its original meaning. It has primarily come to mean the player with the best stats, specifically quarterbacks, in voters' eyes.
That immediately makes Maye the underdog in the fight with Stafford, and the main argument as to why voters would put in the Rams' quarterback's name over his. But if you break down the most valuable statistics that aren't on the box score, you get a completely different story.
That's exactly what Kimes did, and someone like Orlovsky didn't want to hear it.
It's an unfortunate reality we're living with as fans of the NFL, and it's frustrating for those who support players who are the legitimate definition of what the award means. That was the case for Lamar Jackson in 2024, who should have won his third MVP, but instead, the voters chose a much less impressive season by Josh Allen, and it looks like we're on pace to deal with the same scenario this year.
No matter what happens, Maye is playing in the Super Bowl at just 23 years old and has a chance to win Super Bowl MVP instead. Hopefully, he will continue to be successful for a long time and have another chance to win the MVP award in his career, but it doesn't look like this year will be the time.