Let’s start at the very beginning (a very good place to start). Or is it the end? Is this a countdown or a ranking? It’s up to you to decide, dear reader. Time and order don’t exist in the digital space. On the football field, however, they certainly do. And these factors, I assume, are what led the league’s players to rank Patrick Mahomes — the 2018 MVP and reigning Super Bowl-losing QB — No. 1, two spots ahead of his insurance-slinging compatriot Aaron Rodgers, the reigning MVP and QB who lost to Tom Brady‘s Buccaneers right before Mahomes in the 2020 postseason.
Through the ’20 campaign, Mahomes, fresh off a Super Bowl title, was on the periphery of the MVP conversation the entire season, never at the forefront. Rodgers, on the other hand, unleashed a vindicating vendetta, relying mostly on one bona fide star among his skill-position players, as his front office-appointed successor waited in the wings. It was an all-time season for Rodgers, especially at his age, that was even more efficient than Mahomes’ 2020. As a soon-to-be 26-year-old, Mahomes is still in the early stages of his career. Rodgers, who’ll soon turn 38, is nearing the end of his, per Packers GM Brian Gutekunst’s actions. I suspect this is how the players, most of them in their 20s, reasoned that despite Rodgers’ MVP campaign, Mahomes is the game’s top player and its future, one in the same. But if Rodgers has taught us anything from his spiritual sojourn this summer, it’s that we should live in the present and enjoy the spectacular now. And right now, Rodgers is the best QB, and player, in the National Football League.
