The Philadelphia Eagles left no questions about which team deserved to win Super Bowl 59. But the discourse on who had the best claim to be named Super Bowl MVP was far from unanimous.
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts won the award after outplaying Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes in the 40-22 contest. Hurts went 17/22 for 221 yards with 2 touchdowns and an interception. He also rushed for 72 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries, including some timely scrambles that repeatedly punished the Chiefs’ defense.
While Hurts had a huge game deserving of the award, the Eagles’ defense as a whole was arguably an even bigger factor in blowing out the Chiefs early. At the center of the defensive success was linebacker Josh Sweat, who tallied 2.5 sacks and 6 pressures — both team highs. But Sweat’s performance wasn’t enough to sway the MVP voters.
Earlier this week, the NFL identified the full list of 16 voters for the Super Bowl MVP award. Pro Football Talk contacted each voter individually to get the complete breakdown of votes days after Super Bowl 59.
Hurts got 11 media votes, while Sweat earned 4. Eagles cornerback Cooper DeJean was the only other person to receive a vote. On top of the 16 media votes, fans also got a say with 4 total votes of their own based on a poll on NFL.com. The fan favorite got 2.5 votes, the runner-up 1.0 vote, and the third-placer half a vote. DeJean, Hurts, and Sweat were the top-3 fan vote-getters, in that order.
The final vote tally was as follows: Hurts 12.0 votes, Sweat 4.5 votes, and DeJean 3.5 votes.
While all the Eagles are likely happy that Hurts silenced his haters, Sweat made it clear that he felt he deserved the award over his QB.
