FRISCO, Texas — Dak Prescott is +1400 to win the 2026-27 AP NFL Most Valuable Player award at FanDuel Sportsbook entering Week 3, the sixth-shortest price on the board. Lamar Jackson, who faces Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday in Rio de Janeiro, is +900.
Jackson is tied with Brock Purdy of the San Francisco 49ers for the fourth-shortest odds. Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills leads at +250. Behind him are Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs at +750 and Joe Burrow of the Cincinnati Bengals at +850. Purdy is the only NFC player listed ahead of Prescott.
Through two games, Prescott has completed 48-of-65 passes for 454 yards, 6 touchdowns, and 1 interception. On Sunday, he completed 26-of-31 passes for 279 yards and 4 touchdowns without an interception in a 37-20 win over the Washington Commanders, good for a 143.8 passer rating. His fourth touchdown, a 24-yard throw to CeeDee Lamb with 3:07 left, was the 249th of his career and moved him past Tony Romo for the franchise record.
Prescott got there in 15 fewer games than Romo played. The Cowboys also credited him with his 79th career game with multiple touchdown passes, which tied another Romo mark. He wore a Roger Staubach jersey to his postgame news conference, and his first career touchdown came against Washington on a 6-yard run on Sept. 18, 2016.
“I’m blessed, honored,” Prescott said. “As I told you earlier in the week, records are meant to be broken. This is my time to break this one. Pretty cool to do it against the team I threw my first touchdown against ten years ago or so. Definitely humbling, something I don’t take for granted. The great history of this organization, of the past quarterbacks before me.”
Dallas drafted Prescott in the fourth round in 2016, 135th overall, out of Mississippi State. The record came in his 141st career game.
“Just a lot of belief in myself, the people around me. I’m blessed. Ten years ago, this team was my first touchdown throw, and then to break the record against them here in Dallas, though, I’m so grateful,” Prescott explained. “I couldn’t have done it without so, so many people. Obviously, my team, the Lord, my Lord and Savior, I’m just blessed and just getting started. Like I told you guys, there’s a lot of bigger numbers out there that I want, a championship, but we’re just getting started.”
A week earlier, in a 28-20 loss to the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium, Prescott threw for 175 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 1 interception. Sunday was the Cowboys’ only game at AT&T Stadium in the first three weeks of the season.
“Definitely was thinking we can’t go 0-2 going to Brazil and definitely wanted to get this out of the way in front of our fans. And, I mean, look forward to going to Brazil, but I’m sure more of our fans are here. And so I wanted to get it done, get it over with. And I think it would have just been odd doing it out there in Brazil,” Prescott said.
Lamar Jackson Threw A Late Interception In Ravens’ Loss To The Saints
Jackson has thrown for 559 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 1 interception for the Baltimore Ravens while rushing for 74 yards and a touchdown. He opened the season with 324 passing yards in a 41-23 win over the Indianapolis Colts, his most in a game since October 2024.
Against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, Jackson completed 21-of-31 passes for 235 yards, 1 touchdown, and 1 interception. He also ran 4 times for 34 yards. The Ravens were up 14-3 with 25 seconds left in the first half of their home opener. A blocked field goal and a 53-yard kickoff return set up a New Orleans field goal before halftime, and the Saints scored the game’s final 15 points in the fourth quarter to win 24-17. Needing a touchdown on Baltimore’s last possession, Jackson threw deep and was picked off. He said afterward that he was tired on the play and that the closest receiver had run the right route.
“I feel like I want that pass back,” Jackson said. “Things just don’t go our way sometimes, at the wrong time.”
Ravens coach Jesse Minter, hired Jan. 22 as the fourth head coach in franchise history, said Monday the team is not in the business of blaming a call or a player for the loss. Players need to show their own identity in crunch-time situations instead of pressing, he said.
“Look, I saw a team that you are kind of in, I don’t want to call it ‘desperation mode,’ but there are 20-something seconds left, [and] you are trying to get close enough to make a last play feasible. You are trying to get maybe inside the 15- or 10-yard line to have a real shot or two into the end zone to win the game or tie the game, however we would have decided to do it,” Minter said.
“So, I saw quick pressure, unfortunately, a really good pass rush by their left 3-technique, on our right side, and I think it maybe forced the ball to be out a little bit quicker than it needed to be,” Minter continued. “So, again, that is two good players trying to make a play in a situation where, obviously, the odds are not in your favor with the time on the clock and things like that. So, that is really what I saw.”
Lamar Jackson Beat Out Dak Prescott For The 2023 Award
Jackson won MVP in 2019 and again in 2023, when Prescott finished second in the voting. That year Jackson received 49 of 50 first-place votes and 493 points to Prescott’s 152. Prescott led the NFL with 36 touchdown passes that season. Purdy placed fourth with 97 points, and Allen was fifth with 80 points while receiving the only other first-place vote.
A year later, Jackson was the runner-up behind Allen after throwing for 4,172 yards, 41 touchdowns, and 4 interceptions. He appeared in 13 games in 2025 and threw for 2,549 yards, 21 touchdowns, and 7 interceptions. Prescott went over 4,000 passing yards for the fourth time in his career last season as Dallas finished 7-9-1. When Minter was introduced in January, he called Jackson the best player in the NFL.
The two have faced each other once as starters, on Sept. 22, 2024, in Arlington. Baltimore was up 28-6 going into the fourth quarter, and Dallas scored three touchdowns in the final nine minutes before the Ravens ran out the last 2:53 to win 28-25. Jackson completed 12-of-15 passes for 182 yards and 1 touchdown. He opened the scoring that day with a 9-yard run and picked up the clinching first down on a 10-yard keeper. Prescott threw for 379 yards and 2 touchdowns and scored on a 1-yard run during Dallas’ three-touchdown fourth quarter.
Josh Allen Leads The FanDuel Board As Cowboys Prepare For Lamar Jackson
Allen started all 17 games for Buffalo last season and threw for 3,668 yards, 25 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions. Mahomes, who won MVP in 2018 and 2022, played 14 games in 2025 before a knee injury in December. In his return, the Chiefs beat the Denver Broncos 31-10 in Week 1.
Buffalo, Kansas City, San Francisco, and Cincinnati all opened the season 2-0. Burrow has twice been named NFL Comeback Player of the Year, in 2021 and 2024.
Jayden Daniels ran for all 69 of his yards on scrambles against Dallas on Sunday before an elbow injury ended his day. Donovan Ezeiruaku, a second-year edge rusher, finished with 3 tackles against Washington and will be part of the rush on Jackson in Rio.
“We just got to communicate, especially as a defensive line. Jayden did a good job today getting out the pocket or going through the pocket to rush. We got to tighten that up, obviously, because we know what kind of guy Lamar Jackson is,” Ezeiruaku said. “So that will be a really good challenge for this unit, for this team, for this defense.”
Dallas safety P.J. Locke (foot) and cornerback Cobie Durant (hamstring) both left Sunday’s game with first-half injuries. Minter said Monday he expects Baltimore to have a good shot at getting several injured players back this week.
The Ravens are +1000 at FanDuel to win Super Bowl LXI, and the Cowboys are +2700. Dallas flies to Rio overnight Thursday and is the designated home team for the NFL’s first regular-season game in the city, with kickoff at Maracanã Stadium set for 3:25 p.m. CT on CBS and Paramount+.
