The Best NFL Player ESPY 2026 puts the four defining names of the 2025 NFL season on one ballot: MVP Matthew Stafford, sack-record-breaker Myles Garrett, Offensive Player of the Year Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and MVP runner-up Drake Maye. ESPN has handed out this award since 1993, and public fan voting decides it live on July 15, 2026. The live board above tracks where the race stands across all four nominees.
The 2026 Best NFL Player ESPY collapses an entire season into a four-name ballot. Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford won NFL MVP. New England quarterback Drake Maye finished as the MVP runner-up. Cleveland edge rusher Myles Garrett broke the single-season sack record. Seattle receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba led the league in receiving yards and walked off with Offensive Player of the Year. ESPN has handed this award out since 1993, public fan voting settles it, and the winner is announced live on July 15, 2026. Kalshi's read leans toward the MVP, and history backs that instinct.
Matthew Stafford is the market's chalk on Kalshi, and his case is the cleanest of the four. The 2025 MVP is the only nominee who carried the sport's most-valuable-player hardware into this ballot, and the Best NFL Player ESPY has a long habit of rewarding exactly that profile. He is the veteran-quarterback story the award tends to reward, and the live board above has him out front.
Myles Garrett is the challenger. He broke the NFL single-season sack record in 2025, the kind of round, historic number voters remember, and he is the only defender in the field. Garrett is asking fan voters to reward a record-breaking defensive season over an MVP quarterback, something the Best NFL Player ESPY has rarely done, and the board treats him as the clear second option behind Stafford.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba owns the most decorated statistical case in the 2026 Best NFL Player ESPY field. He led the NFL in receiving yards, set the Seattle franchise single-season record, earned unanimous first-team All-Pro honors, and took home AP Offensive Player of the Year. He also has the trophy the others do not: a Super Bowl LX ring, after the Seahawks beat New England 29-13. That resume is why he is on the ballot, even as the board keeps him behind the two quarterbacks.
Drake Maye is the youngest name and the longest shot on the board. The New England quarterback finished second in MVP voting, a striking leap for a young passer, but losing Super Bowl LX to Seattle is the mark against him in an award that leans on team success and signature moments. He is the nominee most dependent on the ESPYS' younger, fan-driven electorate turning out.
The Best NFL Player ESPY has been awarded nearly every year since 1993, and the recent roll call explains why the market leans toward a quarterback. Saquon Barkley took the 2025 award after his first season in Philadelphia and a Super Bowl LIX title, a rare running back to win it. Before him it was a quarterback wall: Patrick Mahomes went back-to-back in 2023 and 2024, and Cooper Kupp broke through in 2022 as the Rams' Super Bowl LVI MVP. Tom Brady won in 2021 after his Tampa Bay championship, the category was not handed out in 2020 during the pandemic-shortened ceremony, Mahomes won his first in 2019, and Brady also took the 2018 award. The pattern is hard to miss. MVP-level quarterbacks and championship performers win the Best NFL Player ESPY far more often than anyone else, which is the structural reason Matthew Stafford sits atop the 2026 board.
The Best NFL Player ESPY 2026 resolves the night of Wednesday, July 15, 2026, when the winner is announced during the live ESPYS broadcast at 8 p.m. ET on ABC from the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center. The contract for the winning nominee pays out and every other nominee settles at zero. The resolution source is the live broadcast and ESPN's official ESPYS page. If no winner is declared by August 31, 2026, or the vote ends in a tie, the Best NFL Player ESPY 2026 market resolves to the nominee whose name comes first alphabetically.
The Best NFL Player ESPY is one race on a full 2026 ESPYS ballot. Weigh it against the 2026 ESPYS Best Team odds, the Best MLB Player ESPY 2026 field, and the Best NBA Player ESPY 2026 nominees. The individual-honors slate continues through the Best Athlete Men's ESPY 2026 odds and the Best Soccer Player ESPY 2026 race. To scan the wider board, browse every live sports prediction market.
The Best NFL Player ESPY 2026 resolves on the night of Wednesday, July 15, 2026, when the winner is announced during the live ESPYS broadcast at 8 p.m. ET on ABC from the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center. The four nominees are Matthew Stafford, Myles Garrett, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and Drake Maye. The contract for the winning nominee pays $1 per share and every other nominee settles at $0. The resolution source is the live television broadcast and ESPN's official ESPYS website, with a consensus of credible reporting available as a backstop. If no winner is declared by 11:59 PM ET on August 31, 2026, or if the vote ends in a tie, the market resolves in favor of the nominee whose name comes first in alphabetical order.
Four players are nominated: Matthew Stafford, Myles Garrett, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and Drake Maye. The live board at the top of this page shows the current price on each nominee, with the two quarterbacks and Garrett leading the field.
It resolves the night of July 15, 2026, when the winner is announced on the live ESPYS broadcast at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. If no winner is declared by August 31, 2026, the market resolves alphabetically.
The award is listed on Kalshi, and the same market is also listed on Polymarket. Each nominee trades as a separate yes-or-no contract that pays out only if that player wins.
As of July 11, 2026, Kalshi has Matthew Stafford as the favorite at 58c, ahead of Myles Garrett. Stafford is the reigning NFL MVP, and this award has a long history of going to MVP-caliber quarterbacks.
Because the ESPYS are decided by public fan vote, watch the fan campaigns on social media in the days before July 15, 2026. A late push behind Myles Garrett's record-breaking season or Jaxon Smith-Njigba's Super Bowl LX run is the most likely way the MVP favorite gets upset.