The last time a player who won the league’s MVP that wasn’t a quarterback happened a decade ago in 2012. Adrian Peterson is a once-in-a-lifetime type of player, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that it’s been so long.
ESPN’s Seth Walder put together a hypothetical list of non-QB MVPs. Walder is in ESPN’s analytics department, so he relied heavily on metrics such as EPA or NFL Next Gen Stats player tracking metrics.
49ers “wide back” Deebo Samuel found himself fourth on the list. But I bet you wouldn’t have guessed one of the names in the top-3.