NFL MVP race entering Week 4: Josh Allen stays No. 1, but the field is closing fast — SkimNews
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- Josh Allen stayed at No. 1 despite the gap narrowing, becoming just the fourth player in history — with Jim Brown (1958), Stephen Davis (1999), and Priest Holmes (2003) — to rush for two touchdowns in each of his first three games.
- Jaxon Smith-Njigba jumped to No. 2 after catching 10 passes for 128 yards and two touchdowns against Washington, and now leads the NFL in receptions (27), receiving yards (406), and touchdown catches (6) — putting him on pace to break Randy Moss's, Calvin Johnson's, and Michael Thomas's single-season records.
- Kirk Cousins surged from 7th to 3rd after leading the Raiders to a 3-0 start, continuing a Las Vegas tradition of career-rebirth quarterbacks that includes Joe Plunkett (1980 title) and MVP Rich Gannon.
- Brock Purdy held at No. 4 after a season-high 297 passing yards and four touchdowns (zero interceptions) in San Francisco's 36-30 win over Arizona, with the 49ers improving to 3-0.
- Kenneth Walker slipped from 2nd to 5th despite leading the league with 360 rushing yards and sitting on pace for a 2,000-yard season, after the Chiefs beat Miami 24-10.
- Patrick Mahomes re-entered the rankings with the Chiefs at 3-0, throwing seven touchdowns against two picks on 68.4% passing — less than a year after tearing his ACL and LCL in the 2025 finale.
- Greg Rousseau debuted at No. 10 as a long-shot with a league-leading 6.0 sacks, joining Mark Gastineau (1984) and Kevin Greene (1998) as the only players with three straight two-sack games to open a season.
- Joe Burrow dropped from 5th to 9th despite statistically his best game of the season (282 yards, three touchdowns, 75.7% completion) in Cincinnati's 30-27 loss in Pittsburgh.
Why it matters: The MVP race has expanded well past its usual quarterback-only lane: Smith-Njigba is on pace for three different single-season receiving records while attempting to become the first receiver ever to win the award, and a defensive end (Rousseau, lead unlikely) is in the top 10 — both unusual signals for a race typically dominated by QBs and RBs.
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