Three Arizona Cardinals Who Could Win MVP

The NFL MVP award is a prestigious yet controversial award in the sports world.

In one sense, it is the most important honor in what is undeniably the biggest sport in the nation. However, it is largely driven by two major factors -- position and team success. It means that winning the award, no matter how dominant you may be, is rooted in politics and becomes increasingly more difficult to win.

Sometimes historic seasons can help your case to win, take Adrian Peterson's 2,000 rushing yard season in 2012. It was the last time a non-quarterback won the award.

However, other historic seasons for varying positions - including several NFL records - were simply not enough to secure the award.

It's as difficult of a race as any. Still, there are always plenty of candidates for the award heading into the season and the Arizona Cardinals have their own guys to make a pitch for a campaign.

Which Arizona Cardinals Could Win NFL MVP?

The Cardinals are aiming for a playoff berth in just year three of the Jonathan Gannon rebuild for this franchise. That in itself will grab headlines. But it will take a collective effort from several players to get over the hump after a late-season collapse last year.

Should those players step up and play well all season long, perhaps they could culminate some MVP buzz.

It's no easy task to find multiple MVP candidates for any team, including the reigning Super Bowl champions of any given season, but if I had to make my pitch for three Cardinals players to make a run for the award, it would be the following:

Kyler Murray

From now until the end of time, the quarterback position will be what drives the NFL's MVP conversation. Therefore, it means that Murray will be the Cardinals' top candidate for the award no matter how good or bad he may be.

Although the former top pick is playing closer to the latter than the former, it doesn't mean that he isn't Arizona's top choice.

It simply comes with the territory of playing QB.

Murray hasn't been at his best for quite some time. His last Pro Bowl nod was in 2021, where he led the Cardinals to the postseason for the first (and only) time leading the franchise. The team opened the year as hot as anyone in the league before cooling off significantly.

Of course, that came with the way that Murray was performing, which indicates that he can will the Cardinals to wins when needed.

The Cardinals are hoping to get back into the playoffs in 2025 after a close run last year that, as you guessed, was closely hinged on the performance of Murray. Should he return to prominence as one of the league's better quarterbacks, the Cardinals will have a chance to return to late-January football.

That's where the conversation starts for Murray, but from there it's about the numbers. We would need him to post career-highs/bests across the board with passing yards, touchdowns, and interceptions, but Murray would likely need to become the elite runner he's capable of becoming and is hinting that he wants to turn into this season.

It's a tall task for Murray to return the Cardinals back to the playoffs alone, but that's how we get the ball rolling for the MVP run.

With big numbers to boot, his case strengthens and the NFL wouldn't mind crowning a fresh face as the league's best player and a return to dominance for a former number one overall pick.

Marvin Harrison Jr.

A wide receiver has never won MVP before. That's kind of crazy to consider when you look at some of the greatest receivers ever who put up largely impossible seasons like Jerry Rice in 1987, Randy Moss in 2007, Calvin Johnson in 2012, and most recently Cooper Kupp in 2021 (who was robbed for my money's worth).

It makes the position, at least from a historical standpoint, one of the most difficult to take home such prestigious hardware.

Harrison is already facing a year in which many critics are clamoring for him to step up his game in quite a significant way. Massive expectations placed on the rookie led to what was considered, for all intents and purposes, a disappointing NFL debut. 885 receiving yards and eight touchdowns is still a terrific league introduction, but it was not what many hoped for out of the fourth overall pick.

He will have a chance to build on those numbers in year two with a largely (if not entirely) unchanged offense. Harrison returns as the Cardinals' undisputed WR1 and among the top targets for its passing game. There's little stopping him from commanding the passing game's production that is within his own control.

It would take an extraordinary season from Harrison -- one that would be required to turn into a historic one. Coming off a solid rookie season, that would be quite the jump... but for whatever it's worth, he has as much talent to do it as anyone else.

There's a reason why the expectations were sky high for Harrison coming out of college and it wasn't just for his namesake. No, it is because of his seemingly limitless ceiling and his potential to become a generational player.

Again, as far as things within MHJ's control, there isn't much stopping him from joining the pinnacle of the position. From there, it's all about some luck and historic numbers.

Budda Baker

A defensive player has only won the league MVP award twice in league history, and both of them came before the turn of the century: Alan Page in 1971 and Lawrence Taylor in 1986. Neither player had 50% of votes, either, with Page securing a measly 21%.

It's a nearly impossible task and the only defensive player who could've (and should've IMO) won the award was J.J. Watt in 2014. Other than that, there have been practically no single-season performances by a defender in decades that has been worthy of winning the league MVP award.

Of course, it's not impossible, and perhaps Baker can change that in 2025.

A lot would need to go Baker's way in order to even garner that kind of attention starting first and foremost with an uptick in turnovers. Baker has just seven interceptions, seven forced fumbles, and five fumble recoveries in eight seasons. He would have to legitimately match those numbers to garner MVP notice, period.

It's simply the highest of tasks, but the one thing that Baker does have going for him is league recognition. He's a seven-time Pro Bowler and four-time All-Pro (two First-Team, two Second-team), so it wouldn't be a chore to market him the way it would others.

Notoriety matters, and Baker has that much going for him.

The bottom line here is finding three MVP candidates on legitimately any team is difficult and the Cardinals don't have an extraordinary amount of MVP-caliber players on this roster. Baker has the cache to get a head start at least, so if his play skyrockets, he will have that much going for his candidacy.

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