The San Francisco 49ers have clearly been the best team in the league this season following another impressive win this past week against the Arizona Cardinals. With Brock Purdy as the betting favorite to win MVP right now and Christian McCaffrey in the top five for odds to take home the honor as well, there have been a lot of conversation about who deserves the award this year. While the MVP honor has mostly been a quarterback award, this has been a unique year, and McCaffrey is arguably the most deserving.
Tom Brady, the greatest quarterback ever, and long time 49ers fan since growing up in California, chimed in oh his thoughts on who is the most deserving to win the MVP this year. In a recent article for Heavy, Brady was quoted from his “Lets Go Podcast” with McCaffrey as his quest, and gushed about how incredible his season has been so far. Brady was quoted saying:
“So he is definitely in my mind the MVP favorite and according to his quarterback too, Brock Purdy, who says some amazing things about him. … And I know you’ll say, because you’re a great team player, the Super Bowl is the only thing that really matters,”
Brady added later in the conversation that:
“He is a dynamic player now, and I think all of what he’s done this year is a lot [of] what he’s done in the past. It’s a different team with some different opportunities and they’ve been really dynamic on offense,”
It’s clear that Brady thinks the running backs amazing season for the 49ers is deserving of the award this year even though Brock has also had an outstanding year as well.
The San Francisco 49ers Have The MVP On Their Roster
McCaffrey has a monster season for the 49ers with 1,292 yards rushing and 13 touchdowns on 244 carries. He also has 57 catches for 509 yards and seven touchdowns. And these stats will look even more impressive at the end of the season. This is more than reason for Brady to call him the favorite for the MVP, but McCaffrey in his classic humble fashion dodged the high praise from Brady in the podcast saying:
“Well, I appreciate you saying that, man. That means a lot. I don’t get into all the award stuff, but to your point, I just think even being in the conversation is an honor, and specifically for that reason and the timing of it with running backs and some of the stuff, and I think when you look at the history of the NFL and running backs and where we’re at now.”
Later in the conversation both Brady and McCaffrey agreed on the awards meaning and the mindset a player has to have when it comes to the MVP. Brady, later in the conversation said:
“Yeah, I mean, I felt like I was a lot like Christian… I felt like the team awards were — which was ultimately winning championships — was what it was all about. You can have a great individual year and you could be a really good player on a bad team, which is not very much fun.”
Christian would love to take home the Super Bowl this year with the 49ers much more than having the honor of being MVP. The 49ers still have many challenges on their path to getting the ultimate prize. This week they will face perhaps their greatest test in the Baltimore Ravens, with three of the top five players with the highest odd to win the MVP. This game will undoubtedly be important in deciding who will take home the award, but it seems like McCaffrey isn’t worried about that with his blinders on, he just has eyes set on the ultimate prize and wants the 49ers to be holding the Lombardi trophy at the end of this season.
CMC WIDE OPEN TD! 😮💨
(via NFL, CBS)
— Rotoworld Football (@rotoworld_fb) December 17, 2023
Tom Brady’s MVP favorite: Christian McCaffrey pic.twitter.com/mx4IrsKHwp
— Barstool Gambling (@stoolgambling) December 20, 2023
Brock Purdy breaks down why Christian McCaffrey has his MVP vote 💯 pic.twitter.com/eDH8vg9Sjx
— 49ers on NBCS (@NBCS49ers) December 18, 2023