The race for the 2023 NFL MVP award is heating up.

According to the FanDuel Sportsbook, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy currently boasts the best odds (-210) to win this season’s NFL MVP honor. Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson holds the second-best odds (+470) to take home the league’s most prestigious individual award.

Former All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman is not much fond of Jackson’s case to be awarded the NFL MVP honor for the second time in his career. Sherman believes that Purdy should win this award over Jackson because, at the end of the day, stats matter.

"I've seen Lamar Jackson play at an MVP level," Sherman said on FOX Sports 1's "Undisputed" program. "Ravens fans were upset because I was like, 'He's not an MVP candidate right now with 22 touchdowns on the season.'

"I'm sorry, and people say, 'Oh you're just stat watching.' Well, stats matter when you're talking about MVP. If we would have gave the MVP to somebody with 22 touchdowns on the season when he [Lamar Jackson] had 50, I guarantee you Ravens fans would have been jumping up in arms and protesting outside the NFL offices because that's ridiculous. So we're not going to do the same thing here. Brock Purdy has 31 touchdowns total on the season. He has 29 passing touchdowns, he's leading the league in that category, leading the league in touchdowns, passing yards per attempt, efficiency."

As Sherman touched on, Jackson has not been putting up video game-like numbers on a regular basis this season. Jackson currently ranks outside the top five in total touchdowns, passing yards, and passer rating.

Unless Jackson fills up the stat sheet in the final three games of Baltimore's regular season campaign, Sherman does not plan to change his mind on this matter.

"I mean it'd be tough unless you're just changing the way MVP is," Sherman said. "He won the MVP with 50 touchdowns, he had 14 rushing, he had 36 passing. … If you're not top 10 in passing touchdowns, you're not top 10, 15 in rushing touchdowns, I don't see how that's MVP, statistically.

"When he won MVP, it was because he was top five in those categories statistically. He was playing outstanding. … Eye test is cool, but they will eventually look at the stats and say '3,000 yards, under 20 touchdowns. Is that an MVP of the National Football League?' That'd be a change of standard."

Jackson will next square off with a 49ers defense in Week 16 that ranks second in the NFL in points per game allowed with a 16.7 average.

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