Inside The Star
In the early weeks of the 2025 NFL season, the Dallas Cowboys’ All-Pro quarterback, Dak Prescott, looked like an MVP frontrunner. His offense stumbling and the defense flunking has changed this, however.
Now, at 3-5-1, Prescott’s MVP odds have sunk, while guys like Drake Maye and Matthew Stafford have soared.
𝗧𝗥𝗘𝗡𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚: Drake Maye and Matthew Stafford are tied for the highest odds to win MVP, according to @Kalshi
Who is the front runner as of now? pic.twitter.com/XQg9UZIYXW
— JPA (@jasrifootball) November 14, 2025
Prescott, 32, is a former runner-up for the league’s highest honor, and that came in a 12-5 season; a pace the current Cowboys are far from achieving.
As we look toward the remaining eight games, this long-shot tune may change for the former Mississippi State star. In short, his MVP-star may start to shine again as we go into the November-December stretch.
Here are the top three reasons why Dak Prescott is not done yet in the race for the biggest award there is.
The biggest culprit for Prescott’s regression in these talks is not himself: it is his league-worst, atrocity-of-a-defensive-unit.
Dallas knows this, so they tried to fix it. Their next games will feature a slew of fresh faces on the defense, including external additions Quinnen Williams and Logan Wilson.
They will also get guys like DeMarvion Overshown, Shavon Revel, and Malik Hooker back to full speed this month.
Will it be enough to turn the defense into a monster? That is highly unlikely. If they can, however, improve just enough to be more mediocre than poor, they could win games simply based on that.
If that happens and the wins start rolling, expect Prescott’s name to climb back into those award-winning conversations naturally.
The bye week, aside from the acquisition of the two aforementioned defenders, gave the Cowboys a chance to get healthy.
As a result, Prescott will enter the final stretch with a fairly healthy weaponry around him, and we’ve seen how deadly he can be when that is the case. CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens’ health are huge for their QB1.
When this offense is at full strength, it may be the single best one in the entire league. They’ll just need to have luck on their side to keep that health these next two months.
If we do see that happen, a healthy Cowboys offense and an improved defense elevate the team to playoff contenders. In turn, that early-season chatter will spark again for Dallas’s long-time QB1.
With all due respect to Maye and Stafford, and even Jonathan Taylor we have yet to see anybody clearly cement themselves as a true front-runner in the MVP race.
That creates a clear pathway for...
