“Complete bullc**p!” – Cowboys QB Dak Prescott getting more MVP votes than 49ers’ Brock Purdy and Christian McCaffrey triggers NFL fans on social media
Prescott finished second, followed by McCaffrey and Purdy.
Dak Prescott‘s finishing second in the NFL MVP voting, behind only Christian McCaffrey and Brock Purdy, confused football fans. They posed the question: how can players whose journey ended in the wild card earn more votes than players who will play in the Super Bowl?
On Thursday night, the Associated Press announced that Lamar Jackson had bagged his second NFL MVP award.
It was close to being his second Unanimous MVP Award, missing out by one vote (49-1). Prescott ended up in the second spot, followed by McCaffrey and Purdy.
It was shocking to many quarters that Purdy, who had the league’s best passer rating of 113 and led the San Francisco 49ers to the Super Bowl, was behind the Dallas Cowboys quarterback, who had 105.9.
They also argued that McCaffrey should have even won the accolade, let alone finished behind Prescott.
Prescott led the league with 36 passing touchdowns. Purdy, on the other hand, won 12 games in 2023 (17 in total in his NFL career), and McCaffrey led the league in rushing yards (1459) and most yards from the line of scrimmage (2023), along with 21 combined touchdowns. The All-Pro running back also accumulated the most fantasy points (324).
Football fans were shocked to find out Dak Prescott got more votes than Brock Purdy and Christian McCaffrey in the NFL Most Valuable Player voting
Since its inception in 1957, the AP’s voting process for the Most Valuable Player has been very straightforward but often comes across as vague.
Brock Purdy with the NFC title (Image via IMAGO)
From a technical point of view, the award used to be decided by 50 sports writers who cast their votes to select a winner.
The system changed before the announcement of the 2022 year’s edition. Now the voters submit a 5-player list in the first instance of ranked-choice voting. Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes was the first winner under this method.
Yet the question remains: What does the Most Valuable Player mean? Should it reward the best player on the best team or the player with the best individual performance throughout the season? Voters rarely reach a consensus, leading to turmoil among fans regarding the conclusion.
Sharing a wide spectrum of reactions online, here’s what fans have to say:
For those who are unaware, voting for the NFL MVP award takes place after the final game of the regular season.
The reason Dak Prescott finished ahead of Brock Purdy and McCaffrey could be that the votes were already locked before the Cowboys lost to the Green Bay Packers in the wild-card round. So Purdy’s clutch plays in the Divisional Round and NFC Championship games did not factor into the process.
