In almost another NFL season, Lamar Jackson can be the runaway favourite for Most Priceless Participant.
Already a two-time NFL MVP, the dual-threat quarterback wrapped up his career-best common season Saturday night time by main his Baltimore Ravens previous the Cleveland Browns to clinch the AFC North and the convention’s No. 3 seed.
Jackson, 27, completed the season with 4,172 passing yards and 41 passing touchdowns, each of which marked profession highs. His 4 interceptions had been his fewest as a full-time starter.
He added 915 speeding yards — his most since 2020 — and 4 extra touchdowns on the bottom.
In doing so, Jackson turned the primary participant in NFL historical past to cross for a minimum of 4,000 yards and rush for a minimum of 800 in a single season.
He’s the primary quarterback to throw greater than 40 landing passes and fewer than 5 interceptions in a season.
His 119.6 passer ranking is the fourth-best single-season mark in NFL historical past, trailing solely two seasons by Aaron Rodgers and one by Peyton Manning.
“He’s just one of a kind,” Ravens head coach John Harbaugh mentioned after Saturday’s 35-10 win. “There’s nobody like Lamar Jackson. … He wants everything to be perfect. Everything. That’s why these numbers are the way they are, because of who he is.”
But Jackson faces stiff competitors so as to add one other MVP trophy to his assortment. So stiff, in actual fact, that almost all oddsmakers didn’t even take into account Jackson the favourite getting into Week 18.
That distinction belonged to Josh Allen, who, regardless of shedding his high two receiving targets — together with perennial Professional Bowler Stefon Diggs — final offseason, delivered one other dominant marketing campaign and led the Buffalo Payments to their newest AFC East crown.
With the Payments already locked into the AFC’s No. 2 seed, Allen performed one snap Sunday towards the New England Patriots to increase his streak to 105 consecutive begins, then gave strategy to backup quarterback Mitch Trubisky.
Allen, 28, completed the common season with 3,731 passing yards, 28 landing passes, a 101.4 passer ranking, 531 speeding yards and 12 speeding touchdowns.
He threw a career-low six interceptions in what was his first full season beneath offensive coordinator Joe Brady. He took solely 14 sacks — a credit score to the Payments’ stout offensive line and Allen’s elite escapability.
Josh Allen, pictured on Dec. 22 towards the Patriots, entered Week 18 because the NFL MVP favourite. (Picture by Bryan M. Bennett/Getty Pictures)
It was Allen’s fifth consecutive season with a minimum of 40 complete touchdowns and his second in a row with a minimum of 28 landing passes and 12 speeding scores.
This yr, nevertheless, he did it with an unheralded supporting solid that did little to switch Diggs, who was traded to the Houston Texans, or Gabe Davis, who signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars within the offseason.
Khalil Shakir led the Payments with 821 receiving yards over the 16 video games Allen performed earlier than Sunday’s temporary look. No different Buffalo receiver had greater than 525.
The Payments tried to bolster their offense with a midseason commerce for five-time Professional Bowl extensive receiver Amari Cooper, however the 30-year-old managed solely 20 receptions, 297 yards and two touchdowns in eight video games with Buffalo.
Coming into Sunday’s recreation towards the Patriots, 13 totally different Payments gamers — together with Allen on a trick play — had recorded a receiving landing, tying a single-season NFL file.
Jackson had extra to work with, significantly after the Ravens’ offseason signing of celebrity working again Derrick Henry. Henry rushed for 1,921 yards, 16 touchdowns and 5.9 yards per carry this season, regardless of turning 31 on Saturday, and prevented opposing defenses from solely specializing in stopping Jackson.
“Josh Allen is the MVP,” Payments head coach Sean McDermott mentioned final week. “I’ve been around this league long enough to know, to see MVPs every year for many years, and what he has done on this team and this organization, in this community, and no offense to anybody else, but I have a hard time believing that someone’s done more.”
It might work in Allen’s favor that he’s by no means gained the award regardless of his annual excellence.
“I don’t really care about that,” Allen informed CBS with a smile of his MVP possibilities after beating the Jets, 40-14, final week.
After which there’s Joe Burrow, whose MVP odds are for much longer after the Cincinnati Bengals completed 9-8, regardless of a historic season by the quarterback.
Burrow’s 4,918 passing yards had been the twenty second most in a single season, whereas his 43 landing passes had been tied for the tenth most.
He turned the primary quarterback in NFL historical past with eight consecutive video games of a minimum of 250 passing yards and three landing passes.
Joe Burrow led the NFL in passing yards and touchdowns this season. (Picture by Joe Sargent/Getty Pictures)
Burrow’s 70.6% completion share marked a profession excessive, whereas his 9 interceptions had been the fewest he’s thrown in a non-injury-shortened season.
However Burrow and the Bengals had been burned by a nasty offensive line and a good worse protection, placing them in a 4-8 gap to start out the season.
Burrow led Cincinnati to 5 consecutive wins in Weeks 14-18 to maintain the Bengals’ playoff hopes alive going into the ultimate day of the common season.
It’s value noting Jackson, Allen and Burrow’s gaudy statistics got here within the fourth yr of the NFL common season being 17 video games, versus 16 because it was beforehand. In some circumstances, akin to yardage and touchdowns, the additional recreation helped pad stats. In others, akin to interceptions and sacks, it made decrease totals much more spectacular.
The seasons put collectively by Jackson, Allen and Burrow had been so epic that they earned the three quarterback spots on the AFC’s Professional Bowl roster.
That meant Patrick Mahomes, who led the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs to a 15-1 file in his 16 begins, was left off of the Professional Bowl roster for the primary time in his seven seasons as a starter.
Mahomes, after all, will get the final giggle ought to he lead the Chiefs to a 3rd consecutive Tremendous Bowl title and his fourth general. Jackson, Allen and Burrow are all looking for their first.
“I’m focused on the wild-card game. I’m not going to lie to you,” Jackson mentioned after Saturday’s win. “I’m cool with what’s going on today. I’m cool, don’t get me wrong, but my mind’s on something else.”
