Why Josh Allen’s MVP win is at least a little surprising
Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen is the 2025 NFL MVP after narrowly beating out Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson.
It is Allen’s first league MVP and makes him the first Bills quarterback to ever win the award.
It is also, in some ways, at least a little bit of a surprising result.
Allen received 27 first-place votes to Jackson’s 23.
They were the only two players in the league to receive first-place votes.
Here are the vote totals for the AP NFL MVP:
Josh Allen, Buffalo: 27-22-1-0-0=383
Lamar Jackson, Baltimore: 23-26-0-1-0: 362
Saquon Barkley, Philadelphia: 0-1-25-19-2: 120
Joe Burrow, Cincinnati: 0-1-15-10-12: 82
Jared Goff, Detroit: 0-0-6-5-19: 47
Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City:…
— Josh Dubow (@JoshDubowAP) February 7, 2025
It caps off a dominant individual season for Allen that saw him account for 41 total touchdowns (28 passing, 12 rushing and one receiving), while also throwing for 3,731 yards. The biggest change in his game this season was the way he dramatically cut down on his turnovers and not only helped carry the Bills offense, but also played the most efficient football of his career.
He led the Bills to 13-4 regular season record and took them to the AFC Championship Game where they fell just short — again — to Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.
So how could it be so surprising when he was so consistently brilliant?
There is no denying Allen’s brilliance this season, and he was objectively one of the best players in the NFL.
But it is a very curious — and fascinating — result by the voters. Mostly because that same pool of voters determined that Jackson (by a pretty wide margin) was the best quarterback in the NFL by voting him as the first-team All-Pro at the position, ahead of Allen.
The last time this happened, Adrian Peterson won the MVP award. pic.twitter.com/Hg11sg4F5c
— ESPN (@espn) February 7, 2025
Jackson also had the superior numbers across the board both passing and rushing.
It has mostly been unheard for the voters to split the difference on All-Pro and MVP votes and select different players for those two awards. This year, they did.
Was it because they focused on the subjective “value” argument and determined that Allen meant more to the Bills’ success than Jackson did to the Ravens’ success?
An argument could be made for that, but Jackson is such a rare talent and one of the best dual-threat quarterbacks the league has ever seen. Without him, nothing about their offense works, and we have seen the impact of that in recent years when Jackson has had to miss games. Not only are the Ravens significantly worse, but they can barely function offensively and are not even competitive.
Was it voter fatigue and a desire to give somebody else an MVP award so Jackson did not win a third? If so, that would be a bad look on the process. It is not supposed to be a career achievement award. It is supposed to be the MVP for this season, regardless of who has won in the past or how many they have won.
Whatever the case may be, the voters determined Jackson was the best quarterback but that Allen was the best and Most Valuable Player. That is a little surprising. Also fascinating.
Adam Gretz
Adam Gretz is a freelance writer based in Pittsburgh. He covers the NHL, NFL, MLB and NBA. Baseball is his favorite sport — he is nearly halfway through his goal of seeing a game in every MLB ballpark. Catch him on Twitter @AGretz
