ESPN's NFL MVP Poll: Brady unseats Carr as No. 1

— -- If you arrived on Earth in a spaceship in Week 14 and knew nothing about what happened in the first 13 weeks of the NFL season, you'd think the MVP race was a no-brainer.

The future Hall of Famer who took apart the league's No. 1 defense on Monday night looked like the clear choice, whereas the guy who led our poll each of the past two weeks played his worst game of the year at the worst possible time while the rookies who have been driving the league's hottest team looked mortal.

So there's a change atop our weekly MVP poll with three weeks to go, with a familiar name taking over the lead.

Methodology: Each of our 13 panelists nominated their top five candidates.?First-place votes were worth five points, second-place votes worth four, third-place?votes worth three, fourth-place votes worth two and fifth-place votes worth one.

Previous polls: Week 14 | Week 13

1. Tom Brady,?QB | New England Patriots

Case against Ryan:?The only real case against Ryan at this point is that his record isn't as good as those of the other candidates. Brady has won as many games and missed the first four. MVPs tend to come from the very best teams, and at this point, we still don't know whether Atlanta will be able to claim to be one of those.