Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow doesn’t seem to get rattled by much. He’s as cool as ice in virtually every situation he’s found himself in on the football field ever since his college days at LSU.
But Sunday will be the biggest moment he’s ever seen, taking on the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LVI. If he can stay calm under pressure and deliver a win for the Bengals, he has a pretty good chance to win Super Bowl MVP.
A quarterback has won the award 31 times in the 55 previous iterations of the game. In the past two decades, the winning signal-caller has won it 13 times and in four of the last five games.
There’s really no hard requirement to earn the award if you're a quarterback outside of winning the game. Most previous winners have three touchdown passes, so that would help. But it’s not a necessity. Peyton Manning earned Super Bowl MVP after throwing for just 247 yards and one score. Tom Brady won it after throwing for just 145 yards and a single touchdown in Super Bowl XXXVI.
Honestly, if Burrow is going to win it, all he has to do is win the game, not let Ja’Marr Chase outshine him, don’t turn the ball over and have maybe one miraculous throw. If he ends up throwing for more than one touchdown, he doesn't even need the miraculous throw though.
Burrow’s odds to win Super Bowl MVP are +225, with 22% of the overall handle and 15% of total bets going on him to take the hardware home.