Peyton Manning is Currently Front Runner for Award

Published on December 19th, 2012 5:52 pm EST
The battle for the 2012 MVP (Most Valuable Player) award in the NFL is basically down to just two players - Peyton Manning and Adrian Peterson.

Both players are coming off of devastating, potentially career threatening injuries. Both players were written off by a number of people, and both players are turning in arguably the best seasons of their career.

Peyton Manning was released from the Indianapolis Colts and eventually settled on Denver as his new home. At the beginning of this season, Manning suffered from some shaky play, but soon regained his form and has since led the Denver Broncos to a record of 11-3. The Broncos are the hottest team in the NFL, having won nine games in a row. Given the Broncos' cupcake schedule to close out the year, the team could easily finish the season on an 11 game winning streak.

Adrian Peterson, on the other hand, currently has a shot of breaking the NFL's all-time rushing record. Peterson currently has 1,812 yards on the ground after 14 games. The record, which is held by Eric Dickerson, currently stands at 2,105 yards.

Tom Brady is also said to have a very remote shot of winning the MVP title, but given the seasons that have been put together by Manning and Petersen, this seems unlikely.

Here are the betting odds for the 2012 NFL Regular Season MVP award as of this second:

Peyton Manning, 2/3
Adrian Peterson, 6/5
Tom Brady, 10/1

The general consensus seems to be that if Peterson captures the single-season rushing record, he will win the MVP award. If he doesn't catch Dickerson, it is widely assumed that Manning will take home the title, based largely on the record of the Denver Broncos and the length of their current winning streak.

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