How Josh Allen Pulled Off Surprise MVP Win Despite Losing AP First-Team QB Vote

Voters were clearly split on who had the best season out of the league's best quarterbacks.

The voters were clearly split on who had the best season out of Jackson and Allen. / Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images

Buffalo Bills star quarterback Josh Allen captured his first league MVP award on Thursday night at the NFL Honors awards show, as he capped off the best season of his career to date by taking home an illustrious piece of hardware.

Allen, who once again took the Bills to the cusp of a Super Bowl appearance, was rewarded for his outstanding season by capturing the award over his counterpart, Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson.

A coin could have been flipped during the day on Thursday to determine who out of the two quarterbacks would ultimately capture the award, and the voting tells the same story.

According to Josh Dubow of The Associated Press, Jackson captured 30 of the 50 first-team All-Pro votes, while Allen received 18 and Burrow received two. Jackson, of course, earned the first-team All-Pro nod, which usually indicates that MVP would soon follow. For the past 11 seasons, the quarterback named first-team All-Pro also captured the league's MVP award.

Not this year.

While Jackson was named All-Pro, Allen won the first-place votes for MVP 27–23. Of additional note, Jackson received 12 first-place votes to Allen's one for NFL Offensive Player of the Year, which was won by Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley.

In a final stat defining the split amongst the voting bloc, nine voters placed a first-place vote for Jackson for Offensive Player of the Year, while also placing a first-place vote for Allen for NFL MVP.

While Allen led the Bills to a victory over Jackson and the Ravens in the NFL divisional round of the playoffs, voting closed following the regular season, so that playoff win did not have an impact on the result.

Regardless, it's clear the league's MVP race this season could not have been much closer.

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