Rams’ Matthew Stafford wins first NFL MVP award by 1 vote over Drake Maye

After 17 seasons split between the Detroit Lions and the Los Angeles Rams, Matthew Stafford can finally add the missing piece to his trophy case: AP NFL MVP.

That’s right, widely considered a two-man race between the Rams signal-caller and soon-to-be Super Bowl quarterback Drake Maye, things came down to the wire to decide on the 2025 iteration of the honor, with the award reportedly being decided by just one single first-place vote separating the two, according to the Associated Press’ Rob Maaddi.

“AP NFL MVP 1. Matthew Stafford 366 points, 24 first-place votes 2. Drake Maye 361, 23 3. Josh Allen 91, 2 4. Christian McCaffrey 71, 0 5. Trevor Lawrence 49, 0 Justin Herbert got the other first-place vote,” Maaddi wrote.

The unanimous top quarterback in the nation coming out of Georgia in 2009, Stafford has taken the long road to the MVP over his storied career. Despite starting every game he appeared in for the Lions – and every game he’s played in at the NFL level period – and leading the NFL in attempts twice and completions once, he was only named to a single Pro Bowl during his run in Detroit, which ultimately played into Stafford’s decision to leave town and pursue a Super Bowl in Los Angeles.

While voters for both the AP and the Pro Bowl still weren’t infatuated by Stafford’s game, giving him just two Pro Bowl nods and one All-Pro spot over five seasons of very consequencial football, his cumulative success, when coupled with a generation of quarterbacks who grew up watching him play, made him into one of the NFL’s most respected elder statsemen at the position, an honor that surely helped his MVP case.

MATTHEW STAFFORD WINS THE 2025 AP NFL MVP

The Rams QB collects his first MVP award in Year 17. pic.twitter.com/FZRkNDqP6O

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) February 6, 2026

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