Betting Favorites To Win Every 2025-26 NFL Award After The Regular Season

Much to people's chagrin, the NFL awards are "regular-season awards." That gets a little confusing because the 15th annual NFL Honors show is scheduled for Thursday, February 5, the week of Super Bowl LX. So, it won't matter if one of the two betting favorites to win the 2025-26 NFL MVP gets eliminated in the wild-card round of the playoffs. 

That said, FanDuel is still offering betting odds for awards, and we can get the lay of the land after Week 18. Below are the NFL awards favorites as of Tuesday, January 6, with some analysis for each category and a bet worth placing. 

NFL MVP

1. Los Angeles Rams QB Matt Stafford (-175)
2. New England Patriots QB Drake Maye (+140)

Stafford regained his spot as the NFL MVP betting favorite after throwing four touchdowns against the Arizona Cardinals in Week 18. Heading into the regular-season finale, Maye was a heavy -400 favorite to win the NFL MVP. Unless you have a big position on Stafford and want to hedge with Maye at the current price, I'd stay away from this market. 

For what it's worth, Maye is my choice for MVP. I know the Patriots have played a soft schedule, but Maye leads the NFL in QBR by a wide margin. Also, if we knock Maye for New England's easy schedule, then he deserves credit for having a worse supporting cast and offensive playcaller than Stafford. Regardless, I don't have a dog in this fight and can understand either winning the award. 

Offensive Player of the Year 

1. Seahawks WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba (-7000)
2. Rams WR Puka Nacua (+1900)

JSN is the heavy betting favorite to win this award due to his importance to QB Sam Darnold and Seattle's offense. Smith-Njigba leads the league in receiving yards (1,793), Puka has the most catches (129), and they are tied with 10 receiving touchdowns. To me, Nacua is the better player, but betting him now would be a waste of money. 

Defensive Player of the Year: Cleveland Browns EDGE Myles Garrett (-50000)

DPOY was locked up around November, and it was always Garrett's award. He set the NFL sack record with 23.0 sacks, and even if he fell short, Garrett would still be the rightful winner of this award. Garrett is a first-ballot Hall of Famer at the peak of his powers. No other defensive player should even be invited to the NFL Honors ceremony. 

Coach of the Year 

1. New England's Mike Vrabel (-330)
2. Seattle's Mike Macdonald (+300)
3. Jacksonville Jaguars' Liam Coen (+1000)

This is the tightest award race of the season. Vrabel turned around a four-win Patriots team to 14-3 and the AFC East champion in his first season in New England. In the history of the Coach of the Year award, that resume bullet usually wins. The only pushback for Vrabel winning Coach of the Year is the same as Maye's for MVP: New England's soft schedule. 

Macdonald and Coen make strong cases as well. The Seahawks led the league in DVOA and clinched the 1-seed and home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs while winning the hardest division in football. Jacksonville is the hottest team entering the NFL postseason. The Jaguars went from a four-win team last season to the AFC South champions in Coen's first season. 

Granted, I'm biased because I have a +2000 bet slip on Macdonald winning Coach of the Year from the preseason, but he's my pick to win this award. Although +300 isn't a big enough payout for me to double-dip. Yet, given Seattle is the betting favorite to win the Super Bowl entering the playoffs and its resume, Macdonald is my Coach of the Year. 

Offensive Rookie of the Year 

1. Carolina Panthers WR Tetairoa McMillan (-1500)
2. New York Giants QB Jaxson Dart (+950)

McMillan will win OROY by default because this is a down year for rookies. He finished with 70 catches, 1,014 receiving yards, and seven touchdown receptions. The Panthers won the NFC South, also by default, and McMillan is their No. 1 wide receiver. 

But quarterback is the most important position in football, and Dart led rookie quarterbacks with 24 total touchdowns (15 passing and nine rushing). And while Dart only started 12 games, and the Giants are a dumpster fire, all four of their wins came in games he started. With that in mind, there is some value at Dart (+950), but I wouldn't wager more than "pizza money" on it. 

Defensive Rookie of the Year 

1. Browns LB Carson Schwesinger (-1250)
2. Atlanta Falcons EDGE James Pearce (+550)

This is the only awards market I'm interested in making a full-unit bet on. I mean, are the 5-12 Browns really going to have two regular-season award winners? More importantly, this is a "pass rusher's award," and Pearce had 10.5 sacks this season, which ranked 13th, and 5.0 more than any other rookie. Five of the last six DROYs were pass rushers. 

I'll take James Pearce (+550) to win the 2025 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year. 

Comeback Player of the Year 

1. San Francisco RB Christian McCaffrey (-1100)
2. Jacksonville QB Trevor Lawrence (+700)

CMC was second in yards from scrimmage (2,126), third in all-purpose touchdowns (17), and led running backs with 102 receptions. The difference between him and the second betting favorite is McCaffrey returned as a top-five running back in the NFL after suffering a season-ending injury last year, whereas Lawrence played 10 games of bad football last season and "came back" from mostly just sucking. I.e., there is no bet worth making here. 

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