nfl playbook Ryan Dunleavy Why it finally could be Joe Burrow’s time to win a legacy-changing NFL MVP By Ryan Dunleavy Published Nov. 13, 2026, 12:00 p.m. ET See more of our coverage in your search results.
Make New York Post a Preferred Source Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow prepares to make a throw while playing the Falcons in Madrid on Nov. 8, 2026. DyD Fotografos/Future Image/INSTARimages There are never enough NFL MVPs for all the future Hall of Fame quarterbacks to share.
Ask Jim Kelly, who never won his award against contemporaries Dan Marino, John Elway and Joe Montana. Or Troy Aikman, who watched Brett Favre and Steve Young claim the hardware that eluded him. Or Drew Brees, who was squeezed out in an era ruled by Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers.
The Bengals’ Joe Burrow is throwing every pass like this is the season he is going to join peers Patrick Mahomes (2018, 2022), Josh Allen (2024) and Lamar Jackson (2019, 2023) in the MVP Club — and stop Allen from becoming another two-timer.
“I think it’s important for his legacy in the sense of what the outside world will think of Joe Burrow,” Andrew Whitworth, a former Bengals great and current Prime Video NFL analyst, told The Post. “Any of us that are close enough with him know there is no question what he means to that team and that he is an MVP. If he can stay healthy, this is without question his opportunity to get something he absolutely deserves and would give him that next tier. He’s always talked about in that tier, but then you have people that hate on it and say, ‘What has he done?’ The next tier is guaranteed once he gets that MVP.”
