They are making it hard to pick.

Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Brett Favre — they are all having MVP-caliber seasons, but for the Meter's purposes, only one of them can take the top spot. We're not going with the gutless three-way tie, although it's enticing, as each player has a worthy case 11 games into the season.

Heading into the Monday-night tilt with the Patriots, Manning was still the leader in many minds, although Favre was gaining ground on him. Then Brees took over. In one of the biggest games of the year, Brees came prepared with a performance worthy of the moment, completing 18-of-23 passes while throwing five touchdowns and no interceptions in a 38-17 Saints romp over the Patriots at a raucous Superdome.

To get a gauge of how much Brees' performance had changed the state of the MVP race, we took a poll of PFW's editorial staff Tuesday afternoon. Brees received five of the six votes cast for MVP.

There are often a few games that we can go back and point to as the ones where a player separated himself from the pack in the MVP race. The Monday-night win will go down as one of those games for Brees.

1. Saints QB Drew Brees — Brees is back in first place after leaving Bill Belichick dumbfounded. On Monday night, Brees became the first quarterback to throw three TD passes in a quarter vs. a team with Belichick as head coach when he hit Pierre Thomas, Devery Henderson and Robert Meachem on scores of 18, 75 and 38 yards in the second quarter. Brees leads the league in TD passes with 27.

2. Colts QB Peyton Manning — Manning was the only player other than Brees to get a vote in PFW's MVP poll on Tuesday. He may do more with less than Brees, but he hasn't played as well as Brees recently. It would be hard to argue that Manning doesn't deserve the award should he win it after the season, but he has not been at his best recently. Manning has thrown an interception in four straight games and has been picked off twice in each of the past three contests.

3. Vikings QB Brett Favre — Favre owned the Bears' defense Sunday, throwing for 392 yards and three TDs on Sunday. He has a TD-interception ratio of 24-3. Bears DT Tommie Harris even called Favre his "Daddy." He's been outstanding, but he's not more valuable to his team right now than Brees and Manning are to their clubs.

4. Chargers QB Philip Rivers — His play has been rightfully overshadowed by the performances of Brees, Favre and Manning, but Rivers has been just about as good as it gets over the past three weeks. Rivers has 17 incomplete passes in his last three games. Falcons QB Chris Redman threw 18 incompletions in less than a full game of work on Sunday.

5. Titans RB Chris Johnson — In just his second season, Johnson is having the kind of year that may go down as one of the best ever by a running back. He has rushed for more than 125 yards in six consecutive games — Earl Campbell and Eric Dickerson are the only other two backs to accomplish that feat — and the Titans have won five straight.

6. Packers QB Aaron Rodgers — He diced the Lions on Thanksgiving, bringing his TD-interception ratio to 22-5. Rodgers is the third-highest-rated passer in the league and has six TDs and no interceptions during the Packers' three-game winning streak.

7. Vikings RB Adrian Peterson — Make no mistake — the Vikings would be in a bind if Peterson had to sit out with an injury, but for the first time in his career, he's playing second fiddle. The Vikings came at the Bears with the pass, not the run, on Sunday, throwing 32 times (including a sack) in the first half and rushing just 12 times. Peterson also fumbled twice, losing one, and would have lost the other had Bears LB Hunter Hillenmeyer not touched the loose ball after he had stepped out of bounds.

8. Patriots QB Tom Brady — We haven't seen many outings from Tom Brady as poor as his Monday-night showing against the Saints. He didn't throw a TD and was picked off twice, and he didn't even finish the game as Bill Belichick called on rookie Brian Hoyer to finish things off in the fourth quarter. Brady looked confused and unprepared.

9. Broncos OLB Elvis Dumervil — He added two more sacks on Thanksgiving night and leads the league with 14. Dumervil needs nine sacks in the final five games to break Michael Strahan's single-season record. It looks unlikely, but the Broncos do have two games left with the Chiefs and one against the Raiders, so it's not completely out of the question.

10. Vikings DE Jared Allen — He and Darren Sharper are giving Dumervil a good run for Defensive Player of the Year honors. Allen had two sacks and an interception in the Vikings' 36-10 shellacking of the Bears on Sunday. He eats up the NFC North — 10½ of his 12½ sacks have come vs. divisional opponents.

Honorable mention: Packers CB Charles Woodson, Jaguars RB Maurice Jones-Drew, Colts WR Reggie Wayne, Saints FS Darren Sharper, Eagles QB Donovan McNabb, Cowboys QB Tony Romo, Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger, Bengals RB Cedric Benson.

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