It wasn’t the trophy he truly wanted to win in New Orleans anyway, but Lamar Jackson missed out on adding to his future Hall of Fame legacy on Thursday night.
The Ravens quarterback finished second to Buffalo’s Josh Allen for the Associated Press 2024 NFL Most Valuable Player, denying what would have been back-to-back MVP awards and the third of Jackson’s seven-year career. The 28-year-old lost despite being the AP’s first-team All-Pro selection and Allen being the second-team All-Pro last month. It marked the first time that a second-team All-Pro selection was named MVP since 1987 when Denver quarterback John Elway edged San Francisco’s Joe Montana.
Allen received 27 first-place votes while Jackson finished with 23, making for the tightest AP MVP race since 2003 when Peyton Manning and Steve McNair shared the award. Jackson would have been just the seventh player in NFL history to be a three-time MVP, joining Peyton Manning (five), Aaron Rodgers (four), Tom Brady, Jim Brown, Brett Favre, and Baltimore Colts legend Johnny Unitas. It was Allen’s first MVP award.
Jackson lost to Allen despite having the superior statistical profile and enjoying the best season of his career in becoming the first quarterback in NFL history to pass for 4,000 yards and rush for 900 yards. The four-time Pro Bowl and three-time first-team All-Pro selection set career highs in touchdown passes (41), passing yards (4,172), yards per pass attempt (8.8), and passer rating (119.6) while throwing just four interceptions. His seven games with a passer rating of at least 135.0 also set a single-season NFL record. That brilliance led Baltimore to its fourth AFC North championship since Jackson became the starting quarterback midway through his rookie season in 2018.
Allen had a terrific campaign in his own right and led the Bills to a 13-4 season and the No. 2 seed in the AFC despite losing his top two receivers — Stefon Diggs and Gabe Davis — from a year ago. Buffalo also had just one other Pro Bowl selection excluding injury replacements. In contrast, Baltimore had eight initial Pro Bowl selections in addition to Jackson, and that group included Derrick Henry, who rushed for more than 1,900 yards and was a finalist with Jackson for AP Offensive Player of the Year.
In other words, Allen had more going for his case from a narrative standpoint, but it’s hardly out of bounds to suggest some voter fatigue pertaining to Jackson, especially with his regular-season brilliance not translating to playoff success. Jackson received 49 of the 50 first-place votes last season and was a unanimous choice for the 2019 MVP.
The voting is conducted at the end of the regular season.
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For what it’s worth, Jackson was named 2024 NFL MVP by the Pro Football Writers of America last month. The AP award is not viewed as the “official” MVP by the league, but it receives more mainstream attention and is announced at the NFL Honors show as part of a marketing agreement.
Regardless of whether Allen and Jackson won, the MVP trophy was going to be widely perceived as a consolation prize after the Ravens fell to the Bills in last month’s divisional round and Buffalo lost to Kansas City in the AFC championship game, paving the way for Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs to play in their fifth Super Bowl in the last six years and to go for the first “three-peat” in NFL history against Philadelphia on Sunday evening. And though Baltimore’s window to contend for a championship remains wide open with Jackson in his prime, it’s become painfully obvious that there’s nothing left for him to accomplish beyond reaching — and winning — his first Super Bowl.
A third MVP award wasn’t going to change that reality.
Adding to the disappointment of the NFL Honors night for Ravens fans was both Terrell Suggs and Marshal Yanda falling short for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Neither were considered anywhere close to sure things in their first year of eligibility, but being finalists so quickly should bode well for their eventual induction.
