Russell Wilson passes Patrick Mahomes as NFL MVP betting favorite

The last player to repeat as the NFL's Most Valuable Player was Peyton Manning in 2009. Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes joined Manning last year as the only players in league history to throw for at least 5,000 yards and 50 touchdowns in a single season in winning his first MVP Award. Mahomes had been the betting favorite for this year's award too, but after a couple of uneven performances – perhaps due to an ankle injury – he no longer is the leader. Mahomes is +225 on the DraftKings NFL futures odds with Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson jumping him at +220.

Seattle has had just one NFL MVP all-time and that was running back Shaun Alexander in 2005. Wilson has been spectacular in leading his team to a 5-1 start and first place in the NFC West. His 124.7 rating leads the NFL. Wilson is completing 72.5 percent of his passes for 1,704 yards, 14 touchdowns and zero picks. He's the only quarterback in the league who has played regularly to not throw an interception. Wilson has joined Aaron Rodgers (12 games in 2011), Tom Brady (eight in 2007) and Carson Palmer (six in 2005) as the only quarterbacks with a passer rating of 100 or higher in each of their team's first six games of a season in NFL history. Rodgers and Brady both won the MVP in their years. Seattle is a 3.5-point home favorite this week on the NFL odds against the Baltimore Ravens.

Houston's Deshaun Watson also has made a big move up the odds board and now is priced +500 to win the MVP. He threw for a touchdown and ran for two more in Sunday's 31-24 upset of Mahomes' Chiefs in Kansas City on Sunday. Mahomes had three TD passes, but he pretty clearly isn't 100 percent with that ankle issue. The Chiefs are -3.5 on Thursday night in Denver, while the Texans opened at +1 at Indianapolis, which comes off the bye week.

No running back has won MVP since Adrian Peterson in 2012 with the Vikings. Carolina's Christian McCaffrey is +1200 on the NFL odds. McCaffrey leads the NFL by a wide margin in all-purpose yards. He scored two more touchdowns in Sunday's win over Tampa Bay in London.

The only other players below +2000 are Brady and Rodgers, both +1800.