The NFL regular season has ended and the MVP debate continues.
It could be another close race with no clear front-runner. Matthew Stafford and Drake Maye have the best odds, according to BetMGM Sportsbook.
Playoff results won’t matter because it's a regular-season award. Winners of the AP NFL awards will be revealed at “NFL Honors” on Feb. 5.
Stafford had an outstanding season for the Los Angeles Rams, leading them to a 12-5 record and the NFC’s No. 5 seed. Maye led the New England Patriots (14-3) to a 10-win turnaround and the AFC's No. 2 seed in just his second season.
Stafford was first in the NFL with 4,707 yards and 46 touchdowns. His passer rating of 109.2 was second only to Maye, who finished at 113.5. Maye had 4,394 yards passing and 31 TDs. Both quarterbacks threw eight interceptions. Maye had the higher completion percentage, 72% to 65%.
Christian McCaffrey also belongs in the conversation after an outstanding do-it-all season in which he helped the injury-depleted San Francisco 49ers (12-5) overcome losing several key players and going long stretches without QB Brock Purdy. The Niners even reached Week 18 with a chance at the No. 1 seed before Seattle’s defense shut them down in a 13-3 win.
A running back hasn’t won the MVP award since Adrian Peterson in 2012.
Micah Parsons is worthy of consideration. Parsons tore his ACL during Green Bay’s loss to Denver in Week 15. The Packers were 9-3-1 in games he finished; 0-4 in the others, including last week when they rested starters.
Quarterbacks have won the MVP award 12 straight seasons. Those QBs have played for a No. 1 seed nine times in that span and a No. 2 seed the other three.
Only three quarterbacks have ever won MVP on a team that didn’t win its division. Peyton Manning did it in 2008, Steve McNair as a co-MVP in 2003 and Johnny Unitas in 1967, when the Colts went 11-1-2 but missed the playoffs.
Last year, Josh Allen edged Lamar Jackson for MVP. However, Jackson was the first-team All-Pro. It was the first time a first-team All-Pro didn’t win the NFL MVP award since 1987, when John Elway was the MVP and Joe Montana received All-Pro honors.
The MVP award is given to a player who had the most valuable season while All-Pro is a statistical recognition. All-Pro rosters will be announced this week and the debate will still continue until next month.
The Detroit Lions proposed last season that playoff seeding should be based on winning percentage instead of automatically placing division winners in the top four spots.
NFL owners voted against it in May because a majority value the importance of teams winning their own division.
“I’m a division purist,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said.
The league will likely revisit this idea after a second straight season in which three teams with better records will play on the road during wild-card weekend.
The 49ers (12-5) play at the Philadelphia Eagles (11-6). The Rams (12-5) play at the Carolina Panthers (8-9). The Houston Texans (12-5) play at the Pittsburgh Steelers (10-7).
Last year, the teams with the better records went 1-2.
The Rams-Panthers matchup will be the ninth time a road team in the playoffs has at least four wins more than its opponent. The teams with the better records are just 2-6 in those games.
Two of the teams with the NFL’s top four defenses didn’t even make the playoffs.
The Vikings (9-8) were third, allowing 282.6 yards per game. The Browns (5-12) finished fourth, giving up 283.6.
Both teams had quarterback issues. Minnesota lost starter J.J. McCarthy for seven games and backup Carson Wentz started five games, playing the final 2 1/2 games with a shoulder that required season-ending surgery.
The Browns started veteran Joe Flacco for four games, rookie Dillon Gabriel for six and rookie Shedeur Sanders the last seven.
Houston and Denver finished 1-2. The Broncos earned the AFC's No. 1 seed. The Texans got the No. 5 seed.
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New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye celebrates after a touchdown scored by running back TreVeyon Henderson during the second half of an NFL football game against the Miami Dolphins in Foxborough, Mass., Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford (9) looks to pass during the first half of an NFL football game against the Arizona Cardinals, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Jessie Alcheh)
ADEN, Yemen (AP) — A separatist group in southern Yemen said Wednesday it was urgently trying to contact its delegation that traveled to the Saudi capital for talks on de-escalating tensions among rival forces on the ground.
The Southern Transitional Council, the most powerful group in southern Yemen, said a 50-member delegation arrived in Riyadh in the morning. One member posted a message on X but then the delegation went silent, their phones switched off and their whereabouts unknown.
The announcement came after the Saudi-backed leadership group of Yemen’s internationally recognized government said it had expelled the STC leader. The Presidential Leadership Council, or PLC, said the STC leader was charged with treason after he reportedly declined to travel to Saudi Arabia for the talks.
The recent tensions highlight the fragile nature of the collection of forces, including the separatists, that have been fighting Iranian-backed Houthi rebels based in northern Yemen. One notable rift is between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which has supported the STC. Saudi Arabia on Wednesday launched new airstrikes against the separatists.
“We went to Riyadh to talk. What we received was bombing," Amr al-Bidh, an STC representative, told reporters. "This is unjustified and unfortunate.”
The Saudi foreign ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The professed goal of the coalition fighting the Houthis in Yemen's decade-long civil war has long been to restore the internationally recognized government, which the Houthis drove from the north. But tensions among the factions have grown, threatening to throw them into outright conflict and further tear apart the Arab world’s poorest country.
The separatist STC seeks an independent nation in southern Yemen, something that Saudi Arabia sees as a violation of its national interest. Last week, the separatists announced a constitution for an independent nation and demanded other factions accept the decision.
The crisis escalated in December, when the separatists seized control of two southern governorates from Saudi-backed forces and took over the Presidential Palace in the south’s main city, Aden. Members of the internationally recognized government, which had been based in Aden, fled to the Saudi capital.
Saudi forces then carried out airstrikes on the port city of Mukalla, saying they were targeting weapons and military equipment that had been delivered from the UAE to the separatist group. The anti-Houthi coalition demanded that the UAE withdraw its forces from Yemen, and over the weekend it said it had.
Meanwhile, the Saudis proposed talks meant to calm things down.
The PLC, led by Rashad al-Alimi, accused the STC head Aidarous al-Zubaidi in a Facebook statement of “damaging the republic’s military, political and economic standing,” as well as “forming an armed gang and committing the murder of officers and soldiers of the armed forces.”
Maj. Gen, Turki al-Malki, a spokesperson for a Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, said Wednesday that al-Zubaidi had been due to fly to Saudi Arabia with other officials but did not join them.
“The legitimate government and the coalition received intelligence indicating that al-Zubaidi had moved a large force — including armored vehicles, combat vehicles, heavy and light weapons, and ammunition,” al-Malki said. Al-Zubaidi, he said, “fled to an unknown location.”
The STC representative, Al-Bidh, said al-Zubaidi remained in Aden, the interim capital where the internationally recognized government has been based, to carry out his duties — and because an environment conducive to dialogue doesn't currently exist.
Al-Bidh said the message his group received from the Saudis was “either you come or we’ll bomb you.”
More than 15 Saudi airstrikes overnight hit al-Dhale governorate, where al-Zubaidi's village is located, targeting STC camps, according to STC leader Salah bin Laghir.
Two civilians died and 14 were injured, according to al-Bidh.
Witnesses told The Associated Press they saw armored vehicles affiliated with the STC leaving Aden overnight heading to al-Dahle, as well as drones and flames rising as explosions shook neighborhoods there.
The STC said it condemned “these unjustified airstrikes.”
On Sunday, Saudi-backed forces spread across Mukalla, retaking the capital of Hadramout governorate following days of Saudi airstrikes.
Al-Bidh said Wednesday that around 80 people affiliated with the STC had been killed since tensions rose in December, with most dying in Saudi bombings.
The fighting among anti-Houthi coalition members challenges any unified campaign against the rebels.
The civil war in Yemen, on the southern edge of the Arabian Peninsula and bordering the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, has killed more than 150,000 people, including fighters and civilians. It also has created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.
Khaled reported from Cairo, and Gambrell from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
FILE - The president of the Yemen's Southern Transitional Council Aidarous Al-Zubaidi sits for an interview, Sept. 22, 2023, in New York, while attending the United Nations General Assembly's annual high-level meeting of world leaders. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)
