NFLNFLNine of the 50 AP voters split their votes for All-Pro and MVP between Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen. I was one of them.
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By Lindsay JonesFeb. 7, 6:32 am UTC • 5 min
Lamar Jackson vs. Josh Allen was a true MVP debate for the ages—the type the NFL hasn’t seen since Steve McNair and Peyton Manning split the award for the 2003 season. When Jackson was overwhelmingly voted the first-team quarterback on the Associated Press All-Pro team last month, it seemed like a pretty clear indication of how the greatest debate of the season would end.
But in the most stunning MVP result in years, it was Allen, not Jackson, who took the MVP trophy home on Thursday night at the NFL Honors ceremony in New Orleans. It is Allen’s first MVP award. Jackson has previously won it twice, for the 2019 and 2023 seasons. It was the first time since 1987 that QBs split the MVP and All-Pro honors outright (that year, John Elway won MVP while Joe Montana was the All-Pro).
Allen received 27 first-place votes, 22 second-place votes, and one third-place vote, for a total of 383 points in the AP’s ranked-choice voting system. Jackson received 23 first-place votes, 26 second-place votes, and one fourth-place vote, for 362 total points. Eagles running back Saquon Barkley finished third, with 120 points. (No voters picked Barkley as their MVP, but he had one second-place vote and 25 for third place.)
For comparison, Jackson received 30 first-team All-Pro votes, to 18 for Allen. Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow also received two first-team All-Pro votes. The AP’s Rob Maaddi, who oversees the voting process, told me that both of the Burrow All-Pro voters picked Jackson for MVP.
“I was pretty surprised, yeah,” Allen said at his news conference Thursday night. “Given what we know about how typically voting goes. Lamar was very deserving of this award as well. I’ve got nothing but love and respect for his game. He’s a great steward of the game, and every time we share a field, I’m very fortunate to be mentioned in the same breath as him.”
That means nine voters split their votes—picking Jackson for All-Pro, and Allen for MVP.
One of those voters was me.
I’ve been on the AP’s voting panel for NFL awards for at least 10 years, and never have I agonized over my MVP ballot more than I did this season. I spent hours rewatching games and the All 22, pouring over advanced metrics and talking to people I trust on football matters. My poor, patient husband listened to me talk myself in circles as I paced around the house, working my way through my decision during that first week of January.
My stomach was in knots as I filled out my award ballot, and I remember exhaling when I hit send. Voting for these NFL awards and the Pro Football Hall of Fame is an honor I take extremely seriously. All I ever want is to have done my homework so I can feel confident in my vote, be transparent about my process, and be able to defend it.
One of the biggest gripes about the MVP award in the past decade is that it’s essentially become the Best Quarterback award. We can try to make a case that a skill position player has a season special enough to enter the conversation, like Barkley did this season, but we all know it’ll take something truly historic (and an exceptionally down year for quarterback play) for a non-QB to ever win this award again. (For the record, I had Barkley third on my ballot, behind Allen and Jackson.)
Ultimately, this year it came down to the two quarterbacks, and it felt impossible to choose. I am confident that (a) both Jackson and Allen were deserving of the league’s highest individual honor, and (b) MVP is not strictly an award for the best quarterback, so voting one of them for All-Pro didn’t mean he automatically had to be my MVP. The phrasing of “Most Valuable” is extremely vague, and open to plenty of interpretation of what it actually means. To me, the MVP award is open to narrative considerations, a player’s career arc, the roster decisions made around him, and expectations for any particular season, in a way that—again, to me—All-Pro voting is not. In considering (and considering and considering) Jackson vs. Allen, I opened myself up to the possibility that some great quarterback plays and moments carried more weight than others this season.
Allen finished the season with 3,731 passing yards and 28 touchdowns, along with 513 rushing yards and 12 scores on the ground. Jackson’s numbers were eye-popping: 4,172 passing yards and 41 touchdowns, and 915 rushing yards and four TDs on the ground.
So splitting my ballot was my way of acknowledging that Jackson played quarterback better than anyone this season, while Allen was the defining, and yes, most valuable, football character of the regular season. When I think back on the 2024 regular season, it was Allen whose best plays lead the highlight reel—his passing-turned-receiving touchdown against San Francisco in the snow, his fourth-down touchdown run against Kansas City that helped Buffalo hand the Chiefs their only meaningful loss of the season, and his roll-out deep dart to Keon Coleman in a December shootout against Detroit.
This wasn’t Allen’s best statistical season in many areas—his total yardage, passing touchdowns, and passer rating were all down from a peak in 2020, and that was certainly a valid argument against him, especially since Jackson outperformed his two previous MVP seasons. But I don’t think it’s hard to make the case that this was Allen’s most impactful season as the Bills’ quarterback. His counting stats were down in large part because of a philosophical shift in the Buffalo offense, not because he suddenly got worse at passing. Allen was always able to turn on the superhero switch when he wanted to and when the Bills needed a clutch play, but in 2024, the Bills’ first option wasn’t “hey Josh, just go do something.”
The result was the most efficient version of Allen we’ve ever seen, with career highs in adjusted net yards per attempt, QBR and expected points added (EPA) per dropback. Allen also had better luck on turnovers this season. He had career lows in interceptions (six) and fumbles (five). He also took a career-low number of sacks. If his perceived recklessness with the football was one thing that had held him back from serious MVP consideration in the past, well, he answered that question this season.
And he did it while leading the Bills to the no. 2 seed in the AFC in what most of us thought would be a reset year for Buffalo after the Bills traded away star wide receiver Stefon Diggs and moved on from several prominent defensive players in cost-saving moves. Value is impossible to cleanly define, but Allen earned this award. It felt impossible to choose, and nearly as hard to justify, but I stand by it. There was no voter fatigue for me, no boredom in a repeat winner, or hesitancy to pick Jackson for a third time.
I understand that plenty of people will not agree with this decision-making process, including many of my peers and fellow voters. Maybe some of them felt voting for Jackson was an easy call, and I get it: He was electrifying, and took his already incredible game to a new level. His stats are undeniable. I’m not sure there would have been an entirely satisfying outcome, though I suppose it feels fitting that an MVP race that felt so tight during the season remained so until the very (surprising) end.
Lindsay edits, writes, and occasionally podcasts about the NFL, which she has been covering since 2008 for outlets including The Denver Post, USA Today, and The Athletic. She’s a graduate of Emory University and is a proud mom and marathoner.
