The Sam Monson MVP vote turned a razor-thin NFL award race into one of the biggest storylines of the week. Matthew Stafford beat Drake Maye by a single first-place vote, but the conversation quickly shifted to the lone ballot that went elsewhere. Monson chose Justin Herbert, and within minutes his name was trending across NFL media and Patriots circles.
Sam Monson Justin Herbert MVP Vote Explained
I was the Justin Herbert vote.
The guy had the worst offensive line in the NFL all season and despite that he was working miracles in almost every single game.
Stafford's OL became 2/5ths as bad as Herbert's for 5 minutes and he became a turnover howitzer.
He embodied 'value'.
— Sam Monson (@SamMonsonNFL) February 6, 2026
Monson is an NFL analyst with an analytics background and one of the 50 media voters responsible for the Associated Press MVP ballot.
When results were released, nearly every voter picked either Stafford or Maye except one, with one voter standing out from the crowd with a sole vote for Justin Herbert. Monson confirmed he cast the only first-place vote for Herbert.
His reasoning centered on value. Monson argued Herbert played behind the league’s worst offensive line and still produced at a high level, calling it the clearest example of a quarterback carrying his situation.
It was a process-driven vote. Not everyone saw it that way.
NFL MVP Voting Results Show How Close Drake Maye Came
This is why the reaction exploded.
Stafford finished with 24 first-place votes. Maye had 23. Herbert received a sole vote that could have went to Maye.
Flip that single ballot and the outcome likely changes.
Instead, Stafford secured his first MVP after leading the league in passing production, while Maye finished just short despite driving one of the biggest team turnarounds in football.
It was a back and forth battle for the MVP award all year, but Monson’s “attention seeking” vote meant the LA Rams QB edged it.
Why Patriots Fans Are Blaming Sam Monson
Fans rarely focus on 3rd/4th place votes unless the margin is microscopic. This one was.
From a Patriots perspective, the math felt simple. No Herbert vote probably means a Maye MVP.
The backlash followed immediately, with critics labeling the decision unnecessary and overly contrarian. Herbert was not even viewed as part of the two-man race by most of the league.
When an award is decided by one vote, deviation becomes the headline.
Sam Monson Response To MVP Backlash
Monson did not retreat from the decision.
He described MVP as the hardest award to judge because “value” depends heavily on context. In his view, there was no obvious runaway winner, and multiple quarterbacks had legitimate cases.
His stance was straightforward. The ballot should reflect who provided the most value, not who generated the cleanest narrative.
Drake Maye MVP Snub Debate Comes Down To Definition Of Value
The entire argument is philosophical.
Stafford represented elite production. Maye represented franchise transformation. Herbert represented performance under pressure.
Different definitions lead to different ballots.
What this finish really showed is that the league never had a consensus MVP. It had competing interpretations.
The Reality About The Sam Monson MVP Vote Controversy
Close awards create easy villains.
Monson did not vote against Maye. He voted for a different version of value.
The stronger takeaway is how quickly Maye has become central to the Patriots’ identity. Losing by one vote triggered the kind of reaction typically reserved for established superstars.
There is also a practical angle here. MVP debates fade fast if a quarterback is still playing deep into February.
Winning tends to settle these arguments better than any ballot ever could, but apparently not this time.
