Josh Allen Wins 2024 NFL MVP Award in Upset Victory

In a major upset, Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen was named the 2024 NFL MVP in a historically rare victory Thursday night.

Allen, 28, received 27 first-place votes to emerge with his first MVP award in a shocking win over first-team All-Pro quarterback Lamar Jackson of the Baltimore Ravens. Allen also had 22 second-place votes and one third-place vote, finishing with 383 voting points. Jackson, already a two-time MVP, had 23 first-place votes, 26 second-place votes, and one fourth-place vote for 362 voting points.

Allen's win makes him only the second quarterback to be named MVP (excluding co-MVPs) without also being an Associated Press first-team All-Pro selection that season. The only other was John Elway, who won the award over first-team All-Pro Joe Montana in 1987.

The seventh pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, Allen turned in one of his most efficient seasons en route to leading Buffalo (13-4) to its second AFC Championship Game appearance in five years and one win shy of its first Super Bowl appearance since the 1993 season. He finished the campaign with 3,731 passing yards, 28 passing touchdowns (40 total) and six interceptions in 17 regular-season starts, and 636 passing yards, six total touchdowns (four passing, two rushing) and no turnovers in three postseason games.

Allen's first career MVP award, to many inside the Bills' locker room, has been a long time coming. Many of his teammates in 2023 felt as though Allen was robbed of the honors despite having superior statistics to Jackson. Allen was even the player picked in The Athletic's 2024 anonymous NFL player poll as the next person to win their first-ever MVP award.

Regardless of the voting dynamics, Allen is an incredibly deserving winner. He played the best football of his career in 2024, helping uplift a pass-catching room that didn't have a single player above 850 receiving yards and only two players above 500. When teams chose to sit back against him, he didn't force throws and took what was given underneath until defenses would creep up closer to the line of scrimmage.

Allen is the first Bills player to have won the award in 33 years, when running back Thurman Thomas did so in the 1991 season. He also made franchise history as the only Bills quarterback to have won MVP since the team joined the NFL in 1970.

Now that he has his first MVP award, Allen's sustained success and ability to do more with less around him puts him in the discussion for the best player in franchise history. Although the Bills came up short in the AFC Championship Game, Allen's 2024 campaign, now dubbed an MVP year, will be remembered fondly among Bills fans for quite some time.