This year’s MVP race is shaping up to be one of the tightest in recent memory, and Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson is right in the thick of it.
Jackson won MVP in both 2019 and 2023, but he’s having the best statistical season of his career in 2024. With one game to go, the seventh-year pro has completed 67.9 percent of his passes for 3,955 yards, 39 touchdowns and only four interceptions while also rushing for 852 yards and four touchdowns. His single-season quarterback rating of 121.6 is second in NFL history behind Aaron Rodgers’ 122.5 in 2011, the first of his four MVP seasons.
Despite that, it’s still an incredibly tight race between Jackson and Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen. Allen hasn’t won MVP before, but he’s always in the race and is having arguably the best season of his career as well.
Both teams have advocated for their quarterback to win the award, and now the players themselves are getting involved. On Sunday night, Ravens tight end Charlie Kolar passionately made his case for Jackson over Allen and anyone else.
“I’m not a math genius but one guy seems to be leading in all categories except QB sneaks,” Kolar wrote.
Kolar’s post might be a counter to Bills offensive tackle Spencer Brown, who said this week that Allen had “every statistic” over Jackson last season even though the latter won MVP.
Regarding Kolar’s argument, Allen has scored 12 rushing touchdowns this season. Six of those touchdowns have come from a yard out, another four have come from less than 10 yards out, and the other two came from 13 and 26 yards out, respectively. In contrast, Jackson has scored four rushing touchdowns this season, two from 9 yards out, one from 10 yards out and the last from 48 yards out.
That said, this difference is mostly due to Jackson and Allen being very different players. Allen is over 30 pounds heavier than Jackson, and he is more of a power runner while Jackson prefers to use his speed and elusiveness. That reflects in Jackson having more yards and Allen having more touchdowns.
Frankly, the MVP discourse has been exhausting at this point, and will likely continue to be until the winner is announced at the NFL Honors award show in February. No matter who wins, though, both players have had simply exceptional seasons and are worthy of winning the award.
