Dan Orlovsky voted for Josh Allen to win the MVP Award and voted for Lamar Jackson to win the All-Pro honors.
Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen and Dan Orlovsky (Image via Imago/X)
The Associated Press released the names and voting preferences of the voters in the race to win the MVP Award this year. The majority of them picked Josh Allen over Lamar Jackson, which resulted in the Buffalo Bills quarterback winning by a narrow margin of 4 votes, making it the closest race since the one between Matt Ryan and Tom Brady.
The MVP decision was surprising because Lamar Jackson had better stats and beat Josh Allen 30-18 in the All-Pro voting. Historically, the person who wins the All-Pro voting wins MVP.
The last time an individual leading the All-Pro voting did not win MVP was in 1989. The voters had a split mentality while making their picks and Dan Orlovsky, who had a vote in both races chose different candidates.
The former NFL quarterback picked Lamar Jackson to win the All-Pro honors, but he voted for Josh Allen in the MVP race. His peers at ESPN were confused and demanded a justification for this.
To him, Allen made the best out of the cards he was dealt with, which is why his value to the Buffalo Bills was more than what Lamar Jackson means to the Ravens.
The analyst went on to credit Lamar Jackson for having had a remarkable season, which is why he picked him to win the All-Pro award. However, this reasoning did not sit well with Domonique Foxworth. To him, Dan Orlovsky was beating around the bush.
Even though stats are not the sole driver to determine MVP, Foxworth is certain that Lamar Jackson brought more tangibles and intangibles to the table than Josh Allen.
In his eyes, Josh Allen had an MVP-caliber year, but it was Lamar Jackson that stood out due to his ridiculous stats.
A lot of fans are having a hard time wrapping their heads around Lamar Jackson losing. It is important to understand that the winner is not determined by numbers alone. If Buffalo had a different player at quarterback, this team would be second or possibly third in the AFC East, but they went on to end the year as the second-best seed in the whole division.
Baltimore would not succeed without Jackson either, but a Derrick Henry-led offense would still allow them to make the playoffs and their defense has been better than Buffalo’s all year. From this perspective, the voters’ decision to pick Josh Allen makes sense.
