NFL 2026: One Non-QB MVP Pick for Every NFC Team

Quarterbacks hog the MVP spotlight almost every year. That’s just how it goes in today’s NFL. But rosters are full of non-QB difference-makers who can swing a season just as hard from the backfield, the trenches or the secondary. NFL.com’s Kevin Patra set out to name one non-QB MVP candidate for every NFC team heading into the 2026 season, and the list stretches from a record-breaking tight end in the desert to a Super Bowl-winning receiver in Seattle.

Patra published the full breakdown on July 23, with training camps about to open across the league. He ran the AFC version a day earlier. Here’s every non-QB pick for the NFC, organized by division, with the reasoning behind each call.

NFC West

Arizona Cardinals (3-14 in 2025): Trey McBride, TE. McBride became the league’s top tight end last season, and Patra says he stays Arizona’s most dangerous weapon even with younger names like Brock Bowers, Colston Loveland and Tyler Warren pushing at the position nationally. His separation skills let quarterbacks lean on him in almost any situation. A lot of that hinges on continuity at quarterback — if Jacoby Brissett is still under center, McBride’s path to matching or beating last year’s 1,200-yard season gets a lot clearer. New head coach Mike LaFleur, a Sean McVay disciple, is expected to keep McBride central to the scheme.

Los Angeles Rams (12-5): Myles Garrett, OLB. The Rams didn’t just add a pass rusher this offseason — they traded for the reigning single-season sack king, and Patra calls it the single biggest personnel move in the NFC this year. Garrett racked up his numbers in Cleveland on a team that trailed constantly, meaning opponents weren’t exactly pass-happy by necessity — his 125.5 career sacks came the hard way. Now he joins a top-tier offense and a defense that overhauled its secondary. Patra floats something that would have sounded absurd a year ago: Garrett threatening his own single-season sack record, in a new uniform.

San Francisco 49ers (12-5): Mike Evans, WR. This is Patra’s most debatable call of the whole list, and he says so. Christian McCaffrey or a bounced-back Nick Bosa would be the “safer” picks. Instead, Patra bets on Evans giving Kyle Shanahan something the 49ers’ offense hasn’t really had: a true X-receiver who wins isolated matchups on his own. Evans turns 33 next month and just posted his first sub-1,000-yard season in 12 NFL campaigns — real risk factors. But Patra’s reasoning is professionalism and track record: few receivers in the league carry themselves like Evans does, and if he stays healthy, he could push Shanahan’s offense to a new level.

Seattle Seahawks (14-3): Jaxon Smith-Njigba, WR. The reigning Super Bowl champions’ best player is now the highest-paid receiver in football after signing a four-year, $168 million extension, per NFL.com. Smith-Njigba led the entire NFL with 1,793 receiving yards last season on 119 catches and 10 touchdowns — video-game production for a 6-foot, 197-pound receiver. Patra’s only real worry: Seattle is moving on from play-caller Klint Kubiak, who built his scheme around getting JSN open, to first-time play-caller Brian Fleury. Even with that transition, Patra isn’t worried Smith-Njigba’s talent lets it show.

NFC South

Atlanta Falcons (8-9): Bijan Robinson, RB. Robinson slots perfectly into new head coach Kevin Stefanski’s wide-zone rushing attack. Patra points to the numbers: in Stefanski’s first five years calling plays or running a team (2019-2023), his offenses ranked top-10 in rush attempts every single season and top-six in rushing yards in four of five years. Robinson is coming off back-to-back 1,400-yard rushing seasons and could realistically chase his first rushing title — or even threaten Chris Johnson’s single-season scrimmage-yards record of 2,509.

Carolina Panthers (8-9): Tetairoa McMillan, WR. It didn’t take long for McMillan to become Bryce Young’s top read as a rookie — 70 catches on 122 targets for 1,014 yards and seven touchdowns, mostly on intermediate routes. Patra thinks there’s more room to grow: better contested-catch ability and route running could push the 6-foot-5, 212-pound receiver into the league’s elite tier in Year 2. The Panthers also added rookie speedster Chris Brazzell II, who could pull coverage away from the intermediate area McMillan lived in as a rookie.

New Orleans Saints (6-11): Travis Etienne, RB. Patra admits he had this pick locked in before the Saints confirmed Alvin Kamara was staying — and he’s sticking with Etienne anyway. New Orleans made a real financial commitment to sign him in free agency as the back it wants running Kellen Moore’s offense. Etienne is coming off a 1,107-yard, seven-touchdown season in Jacksonville and inherits a Saints offensive line that could crack the league’s top tier by season’s end. Even if Kamara eats into his workload, Patra expects the 27-year-old to deliver.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers (8-9): Tristan Wirfs, LT. Wirfs has made the Pro Bowl in five straight healthy seasons and remains the wall protecting Baker Mayfield’s blind side while opening running lanes. An injury-shortened 2025 — five missed games, including two costly late-season losses — knocked his production down, but Patra expects a full bounce-back. Outside of Mayfield himself, Patra doesn’t see a more important Buccaneer heading into 2026.

NFC North

Chicago Bears (11-6): Darnell Wright, RT. Chicago’s flashier new offense under Ben Johnson overshadowed how good Wright quietly became. Patra notes the right tackle has improved every year of his three-year career, and last season he allowed pressure on just 3.8% of his snaps, per Pro Football Focus — barely behind first-team All-Pro Penei Sewell’s 3.3% mark. Patra expects Wright to keep climbing the tackle rankings and thinks a Pro Bowl nod is overdue after last year’s snub.

Detroit Lions (9-8): Penei Sewell, LT. Detroit is moving Sewell from right tackle to left tackle, and Patra treats the fact that few people expect him to struggle as its own compliment. He notes even Tristan Wirfs saw a slight efficiency dip in his own right-to-left transition in Tampa back in 2023. If Sewell makes the switch cleanly and stays All-Pro-caliber, Patra says it cements his standing among the league’s best. The stakes are real: the entire retooled offensive line leans on Sewell protecting Jared Goff and getting Detroit’s offense rolling again.

Green Bay Packers (9-7-1): Matthew Golden, WR. Golden’s rookie season had quiet stretches — no catches at all in three games, under 10 yards in three others — but he broke out in the Packers’ playoff loss to Chicago, hinting at his first-round pedigree. Patra points to an ankle injury that lingered through his rookie year as a factor, drawing a comparison to how early lower-body injuries slowed Davante Adams’ own transition to the league. With Jayden Reed and Christian Watson rounding out a clear top-three, Patra expects better health and more opportunity to translate into a real Year 2 leap for Golden.

Minnesota Vikings (9-8): Justin Jefferson, WR. Whoever wins Minnesota’s open quarterback competition, Patra likes Jefferson’s odds either way. Kyler Murray has a track record of force-feeding his top target; if J.J. McCarthy wins the job instead, Patra figures it’ll be because he’s taken a real step forward. Jefferson is coming off career lows across the board — 1,048 yards, two touchdowns over 17 games — but Patra’s take is simple: receivers of his caliber don’t stay down for long, and better quarterback play alone could send him back to the top of the league leaderboard.

NFC East

Dallas Cowboys (7-9-1): Quinnen Williams, DT. Dallas finished dead last in points allowed in 2025, and Patra says any defensive turnaround under new coordinator Christian Parker starts with Williams bouncing back. His sack total dipped to 2.5 last season, but the underlying numbers held up — 45 quarterback pressures (tied for seventh among defensive tackles, per Next Gen Stats) and an 11.9% pressure rate that ranked fifth among players with at least 200 pass rushes. Williams led all defensive tackles in pressures as recently as 2023 (71) and posted a career-high 12 sacks in 2022, so the ceiling is established. Patra expects Parker’s scheme to unleash him again.

New York Giants (4-13): Abdul Carter, OLB. Carter’s rookie sack total — just four — undersold his impact. He still led the Giants with 72 quarterback pressures, seventh-most leaguewide per Next Gen Stats, and posted a 15.4% pressure rate. He also finished strong, logging 3.5 of his four sacks over the final five weeks. Patra expects a bigger statistical season now that new defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson has more talent around him to create consistent opportunities.

Philadelphia Eagles (11-6): Saquon Barkley, RB. Everyone noticed Philadelphia’s offense slipping last season; fewer people zeroed in on Barkley’s explosive plays disappearing. Some regression was expected after his 2,000-yard 2024 season, but a drop from 5.8 yards per carry to 4.1 is steep — and his four runs of 20-plus yards matched backup quarterbacks Jaxson Dart and Marcus Mariota. Patra is banking on a healthier offensive line fixing that. New offensive coordinator Sean Mannion’s plans are still unclear, but if he leans on lessons from his old boss in Green Bay — Matt LaFleur’s team ran the ball on the NFL’s fifth-highest rate of plays last season — Philadelphia’s ground game, and Barkley, should look more explosive in 2026.

Washington Commanders (5-12): Terry McLaurin, WR. McLaurin wasn’t just Washington’s top receiving option last season — Patra notes he was the only Commanders receiver to clear 400 yards, period. Washington could still add a veteran like Stefon Diggs or a released Brandon Aiyuk, but as camp opens, McLaurin remains the unquestioned focal point. He played through an injury-plagued season, appearing in just 10 games and posting career lows across catches (38), yards (582) and touchdowns (three) — and shared the field with Jayden Daniels in only three games all year. If both stay healthy, Patra expects McLaurin’s production to return to his 2024 form, when he caught 13 touchdowns and earned second-team All-Pro honors.

What It Means

No real thread ties these 16 picks together beyond scheme fit and health. Several — McBride, Wirfs, Sewell, Wright — are established stars whose 2026 outlook depends on staying on the field or nailing a transition. Others, like Golden, McMillan and Carter, are Year 2 breakout bets tied directly to more seasoning and better health. And a couple, Garrett in L.A. and Evans in San Francisco, are new-situation wagers: proven veterans landing in fresh offensive or team contexts where the ceiling might actually be higher than where they’ve been.

All of it is opinion and projection heading into training camp — not confirmed depth-chart decisions or official statements from any of these 16 organizations. Rosters, health outlooks and coaching plans can and will shift before Week 1.

Kevin Patra’s full rankings, including his AFC picks, are available at NFL.com.