Dan Orlovsky had no idea when he woke up on Thursday morning that he’d be running straight into a buzzsaw during First Take.
That buzzsaw was none other than fellow ESPN NFL analyst Mina Kimes, who took the former Detroit Lions quarterback to school over who was the more deserving MVP recipient: New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye or Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford?
Two great MVP candidates—here’s why I voted for Maye. pic.twitter.com/WhSrE59GcX
— Mina Kimes (@minakimes) February 5, 2026
“I’m a voter, and I voted for Drake Maye. And I’m right. And I’m going to explain to Dan Orlovsky why he’s wrong,” Kimes began, teeing up what would become an onslaught of her colleague. “For me, I look at two things: dominance and then value. From a dominance perspective, Drake Maye was better than Matthew Stafford in just about every meaningful statistic. QBR, EPA per dropback, he had the highest completion percentage in the NFL. He was first in all of those, despite having a high average depth of target. On top of that, he was the more efficient quarterback. He also brought an element with his rushing that you just don’t get from Matthew Stafford, obviously.
“Opponent comes up a lot in the Patriots’ schedule, for sure, but when you actually parse it down into offense and defense, the slate of defenses the Patriots faced was not that different statistically from the Rams. In fact, in common opponents, Drake Maye was the better quarterback statistically.
“Then I look at value. Drake Maye, during the regular season, I know we were watching this Patriots defense, and they’ve looked great in the postseason; they were not great during the regular season. 23rd in DVOA. The run game, 21st. Meanwhile, Matthew Stafford, the Rams defense, top-five in DVOA, best run game in football. Finally, I like the Patriots receivers, they ain’t Puka Nacua. So when you look at who carried their team more, who did more with less from a value perspective, in addition to the statistical dominance, to me it is clearly Drake Maye.”
A flustered Orlovsky did his best to formulate a rebuttal, to no avail.
“Alright, so, one, I don’t know who’s going to win. I voted for Stafford. This is my biggest pushback to you, and this is where you lose it. You can’t on one hand talk about the numerical advantage or the statistical advantage that Drake Maye has on some of the things that you reference and then not talk about the schedule,” Orlovsky retorted.
“I just did! I talked about the schedule,” Kimes replied.
“Mina, the top-ranked defense New England played against was Buffalo at 12th,” Orlovsky said.
“Statistically, I am telling you New England’s, the slate of defenses they faced, if you look at EPA per play, not much easier than the Patriots. And in common opponents, Drake Maye was the better quarterback,” Kimes clarified.
“Common opponents? What is that? Common opponents?” a searching Orlovsky replied.
“You can look at the six teams they both played, put up their stats side-by-side, and Drake Maye was better against those teams,” Kimes said.
Orlovsky would’ve been better off just waving the white flag. It was like running into a basketball team that shoots 60% from three over the course of a game. You’re just not going to win. It’s their night, not yours. Maybe Orlovsky will come more prepared for next year’s MVP debate.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.