Super Bowl 2012: Which Players Have Best Shot at Super Bowl XLVI MVP?

The award for Super Bowl MVP has been given to a quarterback 24 out of 45 times.

Since 2004, the year Tom Brady won his second Super Bowl MVP, the award has been won by only quarterbacks and wide receivers. It is no coincidence either; the NFL has drastically changed to help both the passers and the pass catchers in effort to make the game safer.

This year, a year absolutely dominated by quarterback play, will be no different. With the likes of Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees and Eli Manning—all previous Super Bowl MVP winners—in the postseason it will almost assuredly be a quarterback.

Ironically enough, the only other quarterback in the postseason to have won a Super Bowl, Ben Roethlisberger, has seen two of his wide receivers, Hines Ward and Santonio Holmes, win the award instead of him.

Of the seven remaining quarterbacks, six are playing to win their first playoff game ever with Joe Flacco being the lone exception.

So with all that out of the way, who really does have the best shot at winning the Super Bowl XLVI MVP?

The Favorites: Brady, Rodgers, Brees, Manning and Roethlisberger

This quintet of Super Bowl winning QBs is also arguably the five best QBs in the league. While Brady, Rodgers and Brees dominate statistically and win football games, both Manning and Roethlisberger are two of the most clutch quarterbacks we've seen in some time.

Ironically enough, all five of these teams are in the top seven in terms of odds to win the Bowl. The two teams in front of both New York and Pittsburgh are the respective two seeds in their conference, San Francisco and Baltimore.

All five have been there—Brady and Roethlisberger multiple times—and know exactly what it takes to win.

Potential Winners But Still Long Shots: Stafford, Ryan, Rice, Foster and Willis

Matt Stafford and Matt Ryan will have to throw their teams on their backs to even reach the Super Bowl. If one of them actually gets there though, their defenses aren't good enough to dominate an AFC opponent and they'd have to win the Super Bowl on their own arm.

The duo of AFC running backs, Ray Rice and Arian Foster, are the do-alls for the their offenses. Whether it is between tackles, on the edge or out of the backfield, these backs are the only way their teams will win do something offensively. If one of them happens to make it to the Super Bowl they'll see the football as often as they can handle it.

As for Patrick Willis, he leads a 49ers defense that is actually good enough to make it to the Super Bowl. If they were to have that opportunity he could put up a Ray Lewis-like performance on the biggest stage of all. Lewis and Cowboys' Chuck Howley, who won in a loss in 1971, are the only linebackers to win the award.

Super-Duper-Dexter-Jackson-Like Dark Horses: Jennings/Nelson, Cruz, Megatron, Dalton and Tebow

The quartet of NFC receivers are interesting options. Jennings and Nelson stand the best chance because their team is the league's best. The question is which one is going to rip off the bigger plays from Rodgers?

Victor Cruz is a complete wild card who has proven that anything is possible when the ball is in his hands. He's turned in a ridiculous number of ridiculous plays this year and averaged 18.7 yards per catch on the season.

Calvin Johnson is an easy nod because in order for his team to win he's going to have to dominate. It'll be extremely difficult for them to get there though.

And finally, the young signal callers of the AFC stand virtually no chance of getting to the Super Bowl. If they do they though it will rest on them to be the playmakers. We know what it means to give Tim Tebow the ball in the fourth quarter down as many as 12, and Andy Dalton's steady-Eddy routine is the only reason the Bengals are even in the postseason.

When all is said and done, the Super Bowl MVP award is likely going to go the quarterback of the winning team. If I was a betting man, that would be one of the five that have already been there before.