The Bowers That Be: Predicting MVP and Other 2026 Awards

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
Back to school mornings can feel like a group project you somehow got assigned by yourself. Smarty Pants Vitamins is one easy win. While you're finding shoes, packing lunches, trying to remember if today is the day they need that poster board, Smarty Pants Kids Plus Multi and Omega supports brain health and delivers 33 percent more nutrients than the next leading product. No wonder it's the number one best-selling kids' gummy multivitamin. Shop Smarty Pants Vitamins at Amazon, Target or Walmart.

**Mina Kimes** (0:31)
Welcome back to The Mina Kimes Show featuring Lenny. Ben Solak is here fresh off of his training camp.
Like Journey, I feel like. How many camps did you go to?

**Ben Solak** (0:42)
Nine camps in 10 days, baby. The glorious open road of the Midwest.

**Mina Kimes** (0:46)
Look at Tann, looking ready.

**Ben Solak** (0:52)
You were at Seattle camp, I saw that. I wasn't ready for NFL Network, The Mina Kimes there.

**Mina Kimes** (0:56)
I know, I did Chargers camp with my guy Daniel Jeremiah. Then I went to Seahawks camp, which was actually might have informed one of the things we're going to talk about today because power hours are over. We remain on our twice a week cadence.
We are going to, obviously the preseason is going to start soon. We'll start talking about actual football-ish being played. But this is a podcast. I think we didn't do it last year because I did a live show in Seattle, but we did it the year before, which is awards predictions. I think we did it in 2024, not 2025 When I was in Seattle, I ran to Julian Love and we talked about the conversation we had. I believe he said in that podcast, we're going to be the best defense in the NFL at that live show, which I know they all think that.

**Ben Solak** (1:42)
But one in the 32 has to be right when all 32 teams say it, all right?

**Mina Kimes** (1:46)
Some of the awards predictions, it's funny going back, ended up being prettiest. I think we did a few of them. But it's always interesting to project awards because you're not only trying to project who has the best seasons, different awards mean different things, but it's also there's undeniably a narrative component.
There's a lot to unpack for each of them. So we're going to do the major awards, MVP, Offensive Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year, as such. We're going to do Coach of the Year, Executive of the Year, and then I think I told you we're doing Assistant of the Year too, which I just think is always fun.

**Ben Solak** (2:18)
I feel like you do this because you have like six guys that you want to name. You want to get takes out on all of them before the season starts, right?

**Mina Kimes** (2:25)
Well, I usually do, not usually, but last year I did a head coach's draft and this is sort of, because Assistant of the Year, I find fun to talk about Ben because Coach of the Year is much more narrative driven than Assistant of the Year in my opinion. Assistant of the Year is really just like who's the best. Whereas Coach of the Year is basically become the honorary turnaround job which we will get to.

**Ben Solak** (2:46)
If Assistant Coach of the Year is really who's the best, who won it again last year?

**Mina Kimes** (2:51)
I can't remember who I picked. I didn't pick Josh McDaniel. I actually forget. Did I pick McFangio? I think I picked defensive. I know I picked a defensive coach. I can't remember if I picked Fangio or someone else. It really should be like right now, because the head coaches are play callers, there's way more defensive masterminds at coordinator than offensive coordinator. So let's rip the bandaid and start with a big award. Sorry, that was a lot of preamble.
Let's rip the bandaid and start with the biggest award, MVP. Let's do that. Let's not make them wait. Let's get right to it. I had it down to two. So I should have come up. We're going to do a pick and then a dark horse.
Now I wish I did a non-quarterback for my dark horse. I just looked at my list. It's all quarterbacks.

**Ben Solak** (3:41)
You never. I mean, like it's 15 of the last 16 winners have been quarterbacks. I'm almost 2012, Adrian Peterson. I just don't think you're going to see a non-quarterback win in a long time.

**Mina Kimes** (3:50)
I had Miles Garret either third or fourth last year in my final five because of Odor. So I like to do a non-quarterback. But I'm going to go first. So I considered the big three, Alan Jackson-Mahomes in terms of repeats. Repeats can be a little tricky.