Behind the NFL MVP voting: Tom Brady, former Patriots teammate both select Ja’Marr Chase over Joe Burrow

The results are in and Josh Allen is the 2024 NFL MVP, narrowly beating out Lamar Jackson in one of the closest MVP races ever. There’s some math that doesn’t math up when it comes to the final tallies, because Lamar was First-Team All-Pro and that’s been a nearly universal sign he would win MVP. Even Allen was surprised he won.

But perhaps even more odd than that and maybe even more bizarre than Lamar receiving a fourth-place MVP vote in the balloting, is the ballot from the himself, one Tom Brady, the future Hall of Fame quarterback turned FOX announcer turned controversial Raiders minority owner. 

Brady’s ballot featured Lamar first, Allen second, Saquon Barkley third and then took an odd swerve, with Brady listing Ja’Marr Chase as the fourth most valuable player in football. I have zero issues with giving Chase votes, because he was incredible this season. But the fifth choice for Brady? Joe Burrow! 

You know, the guy throwing the football to Chase. Brady is a former NFL quarterback and he listed a receiver over a quarterback in the MVP balloting?! Make it make sense. I can’t. 

Multiple people voted for Chase, which, again, I have no problem with. Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports, a veteran NFL reporter, listed Chase on his ballot, putting him at fifth, with Burrow third. NBC Sports Chris Simms also listed Chase — Simms likes to go a little against the grain with his draft/offseason QB/etc rankings and I have no problem when he does it. (Anecdotally, he’s usually right more often than not when it shakes out I’ve noticed.) Simms also listed Burrow fourth, ahead of Chase. Perfectly sensible stuff. 

Downstream MVP votes are a byproduct of a new voting system designed to give more options to the 50 AP voters and avoid stuff like Tony Dungy going off-menu and naming Bobby Wagner with his only MVP vote. Weird stuff can happen, like offensive linemen getting votes and it varies year to year.

What’s really odd about Brady’s vote is that he wasn’t the only person who voted for Chase fourth on his MVP ballot. In fact, on the AP’s website, his voting ballot is listed directly above that of the only other person who voted Chase fourth, ESPN’s Tedy Bruschi, who just happens to be one of Brady’s former teammates with the Patriots. 

Bruschi’s ballot is obviously different from Brady’s because he included Mahomes fifth in the balloting instead of Burrow. So it’s probably just a wild coincidence that both of them believed Chase was more valuable than the guy throwing him the football. 

But it’s also another bizarre twist in the weirdest year of MVP voting we’ve seen in the NFL since Peyton Manning and Steve McNair walked away with co-MVP honors in 2003.