The three betting favorites to win the NFL MVP will be on the field on Christmas night, as Lamar Jackson leads the Baltimore Ravens out west to take on Brock Purdy, Christian McCaffrey and the San Francisco 49ers. Now while Jackson is not a stranger to winning the league's marquee individual award — Lamar's 2019 MVP season remains one of the most awe-inspiring statistical seasons we've ever seen from a player regardless of their position — Brock Purdy and Christian McCaffrey are each in good position to win the award for the first time. One big question that remains, however, is whether it's Purdy or McCaffrey who is actually more valuable to the 49ers, or how the fact that they are teammates will eventually impact the vote.

Now this could go one of two ways, as was pointed out in a piece on The Athletic written by David Lombardi. The first way is that because Purdy and McCaffrey are teammates, they could end up splitting the vote, allowing someone like Lamar Jackson to sneak ahead of both of them, even if Lamar were to end up with fewer 1st place votes than either of them. This happened in 1987, when “Broncos quarterback John Elway won the MVP over Rice — whose candidacy was likely hurt because he split votes with 49ers QB Joe Montana (Elway, Rice and Montana finished with 36, 30 and 18 votes, respectively).”

Another way this could go is that Brock Purdy and Christian McCaffrey will find themselves so far ahead of the rest of the field, that we could see them finish 1st and 2nd in the MVP — likely Purdy 1st, McCaffrey 2nd — with McCaffrey locking up the Offensive Player of the Year award too. If I were a betting man, and especially if the 49ers take care of business against the Ravens, this is the outcome I see being most likely. Perhaps the most fitting result would be Purdy and McCaffrey being named co-MVP's. It's happened twice before — 1997 with Barry Sanders and Brett Favre, and 2003 with Peyton Manning and Steve McNair — but that would require an unlikely perfect split of votes between Purdy and McCaffrey.

The Rest of the Candidates

The NFL MVP race has had plenty of twists and turns throughout the season, but with each high profile matchup between candidates weeding out the pretenders from the contenders, fewer and fewer guys have the kind of compelling case that voters are traditionally intrigued by. Think about it, where is CJ Stroud in the MVP discussion now? How about Jalen Hurts, Dak Prescott or Tua Tagovailoa? Does Tyreek Hill have a legitimate MVP case if he doesn't get to 2,000 receiving yards? And how about reigning NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes? When's the last time you heard a good case for Mahomes' MVP candidacy?

We're running out of MVP candidates, guys! And after Christmas night, the field of candidates will be dwindled down even further. Left standing will likely be Purdy and McCaffrey, who are statistically the best quarterback and running back in the league this year, playing for the team that is widely considered to be the favorite to win the Super Bowl.

Those sound like MVP credentials to me.