The Ringer’s Diante Lee has picked Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love as his 2026 NFL Most Valuable Player, arguing the league is ready for a new name at the top of the ballot.

Lee, an Associated Press voter, published the prediction Friday, just before the Packers open the season at Minnesota. He said voters have leaned on the same handful of quarterbacks for years and may finally look elsewhere.

“I think the NFL is due for a fresh face to win MVP this year,” Lee wrote. “For most of this decade, we’ve started the season with the same favorites: Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, and Josh Allen, each of whom has won the award at least once already.”

Lee added that those established stars would likely need historic numbers or a runaway team season to claim another trophy. Love, he argued, is positioned to slip through that opening.

“Love could be an unexpected winner,” Lee wrote. “He’s currently fifth in MVP odds to open the year on FanDuel (+2200)—so not a favorite, not a dark horse, but fitting for someone who at times plays like a top five quarterback.”

Love finished last season with a 101.2 passer rating and 7.7 yards per attempt, both top-10 marks, while completing 66.3% of his throws for 3,381 yards, 23 touchdowns and six interceptions in 15 games.

Those numbers did not produce a double-digit win season or a deep playoff run, which Lee said still shapes how many fans see him.

“Because Love hasn’t won double-digit games in a single season or had a deep playoff run yet, the average fan probably views him as a good but not great quarterback,” Lee wrote. “But his passing statistics suggest that he is bordering on elite.”

The case for a jump in volume is already forming around him. Edge rusher Micah Parsons is recovering from a torn ACL suffered late last season and opened 2026 on the reserve/PUP list, meaning he will miss at least the first four games. Running back Josh Jacobs remains on the commissioner’s exempt list while the league reviews a personal-conduct matter, leaving Green Bay thinner on the ground.

Lee expects that combination to force more passing.

“His passing volume should be up this year, especially if Green Bay’s defense struggles at all without edge rusher Micah Parsons (who’s recovering from last season’s torn ACL) and the offense has to put up high-scoring games,” he wrote. “Love should throw enough to cross the 4,000-yard mark this year, and if he can lead the Packers to an NFC North title, he’d be credited for carrying this team in Parsons’s absence.”

Love did not sound interested in shrinking the playbook.

“I think always the goal of the offense is to put up as many points as you can,” he said this week. “I think that’s our goal, no matter who’s out there on defense, with Micah, without Micah. I want to go out there and be the best offense we can be; I want to put up a touchdown every time we touch the field.”

Packers reporter Bill Huber made a similar volume argument earlier in the week.

“Statistically, Love could have a tremendous year – even an MVP-caliber year (he’s only 13th in the odds at FanDuel Sportsbook) – because some of the goal-line runs by Jacobs will become passes by Love,” Huber wrote.

Love’s last game offered a snapshot of what that look can be. In the wild-card loss at Chicago, he threw for 323 yards and four touchdowns without an interception.

Lee used that tape as part of the pitch and listed Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, Dak Prescott and Trevor Lawrence as the other quarterbacks he will watch most closely.

Sports host Kay Adams has also pushed Love as a value play at long odds.

“He’s a dark horse. I don’t really know why. I think this is the year,” Adams said. “13th longest odds is crazy, +2200. This is a scorched-earth season in the making for him.”

ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky, who picked Love for MVP a year ago, has not backed off the talent evaluation.

“I somehow, still truly deep down, believe that this dude is so undervalued,” Orlovsky said.

Love still has to stay healthy for a full season, something he has not done since 2023, and the Packers still have to win enough in a loaded NFC North for voters to take the leap. Lee’s point is that the efficiency is already there. The missing piece, in this telling, is simply more chances to throw.