In the most heated contest in NFL MVP history, Matthew Stafford managed to beat Drake Maye and win the most important award at the NFL Honors, but the night ended controversially due to a decisive vote involving a random vote for Justin Herbert, who was not even on the list of finalists.
Vote For Justin Herbert “Took” The MVP Award From Drake Maye
According to Rob Maaddi, Stafford won the award with 24 of the 50 first-place votes, while Maye received 23. In other words, considering that the Los Angeles Rams quarterback finished the voting with 366 total points and the New England Patriots quarterback with 361, one more first-place vote for Maye would have been decisive.
As Courtney Cronin pointed out, Maye lost the MVP award because of one less first-place vote that went to Stafford. Everything indicated that the person responsible for this highly controversial vote would try to remain anonymous, but Sam Monson chose to defend himself on his official social media profile.
I was the Justin Herbert vote.
The guy had the worst offensive line in the NFL all season and despite that he was working miracles in almost every single game.
Stafford’s OL became 2/5ths as bad as Herbert’s for 5 minutes and he became a turnover howitzer.
He embodied ‘value’.
— Sam Monson (@SamMonsonNFL) February 6, 2026
MVP is the single hardest award to ‘correctly’ determine, because the focus is on ‘value’, which is basically impossible to objectively evaluate with so many dependencies.
But the idea that one vote altered a guy’s legacy is stupid.
More people than not thought each candidate…
— Sam Monson (@SamMonsonNFL) February 6, 2026
A first-place vote is worth 10 points. Second place is worth five points, and third place is worth three points. If Monson had placed Maye second on his ballot, a swap with Herbert would have left the Patriots QB tied with Stafford. If Maye had been third or lower on Monson’s ballot, a swap for Herbert would have given the Patriots QB the win.
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Although the final result was peculiar due to the narrow margin, it is not a matter of categorically stating that Herbert’s vote was incorrect. Nor does it mean that Maye had the same level of merit, considering the relative ease of the Patriots’ schedule. Still, considering that this award is individual, the photo given to Herbert attracted a lot of attention.
Voting for Herbert Would Be Justifiable Due to the Chargers’ Offensive Weakness
The central Monson argument is based on the QB’s individual performance amid an extremely adverse scenario.
Even facing an unstable offensive line with the Los Angeles Chargers (a team that suffered injuries and constant changes at the starting position throughout the season) and few consistent receiving options, Herbert, who ranks No. 6 in the PFSN QB Impact metric with a B grade, maintained impressive numbers.
The vote recognized the technical excellence and mental toughness Herbert demonstrated under intense pressure. Even so, it is noteworthy that his 26 touchdowns, 13 interceptions, and 3,727 passing yards fell well short of the statistics of May and Stafford.
