Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has never won the league’s MVP award during his long NFL career and the early offseason odds are long that he’ll do it for a first time in 2021.
Early odds for the 2021 NFL MVP award were released on Tuesday by BetOnline.ag and Roethlisberger is listed as being tied for the 12th-best odds to win it at 66/1.
Roethlisberger has the same odds as New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara, Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins, Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovalioa and soon-to-be rookie quarterback Trevor Lawrence out of Clemson, who many expect will be the first overall selection in this year’s draft by the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Saints quarterback Jameis Winston, Carolina Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey and New England Patriots quarterback Cam Newton all have slightly better MVP odds than Roethlisberger does at 50/1.
In the 15 games that Roethlisberger played in 2020 after missing nearly all of the 2019 season with a serious elbow injury, he completed 399 of 608 passes for 3,803 yards with 33 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. That was good for a quarterback rating of 94.1.
Roethlisberger was very efficient in his first nine games of the 2020 season as the veteran quarterback had 22 touchdowns and just four interceptions during that span. However, in his last seven games of 2020, and including the team’s playoff loss, Roethlisberger had 15 touchdown passes and 10 interceptions. He did throw for just over 500 yards in that playoff loss to the Cleveland Browns, however.
Roethlisberger turned 39 years old in March and is now set to play his 18th season with the Steelers in 2021 after altering his contract and taking $5 million less than he was originally scheduled to earn.
Roethlisberger’s four extra years that were added on to his contract this offseason as part of the altering process are scheduled to void five days after the Super Bowl is played. Roethlisberger will also play for a new offensive coordinator in 2021 as well as Matt Canada, the team’s quarterbacks coach in 2020, was promoted to take the place of Randy Fichtner, who did not have his contract renewed earlier in the offseason.
