As November football arrives, the week-to-week vagaries of the 2025 season have complicated a lot of things. No one is entirely certain who the conference favorites are, Super Bowl contenders rise and fall on a per-game basis and the MVP race is a murky mess. On the latest episode of “The Athletic Football Show,” Robert Mays and Derrik Klassen examine how the league’s premier individual award is still up for grabs, and focus on an unlikely contender who refuses to fall back in the ongoing race: Seattle’s Sam Darnold.

Darnold’s candidacy, while unlikely, has more statistical legs than it may seem. Seattle is number one in passing DVOA, for example, and the resurrected Darnold is top three in passer rating, EPA per dropback, and completion percentage over expected while leading the league i

See Full Page