One of ESPN’s top NFL analysts was among the voters who cast a ballot for Baltimore Ravens QB Lamar Jackson as first-team All-Pro, only to vote for Buffalo’s Josh Allen as MVP.
Dan Orlovsky appeared on ESPN’s “Get Up!” Friday and explained why he was one of several voters who split their ballots, which helped give Allen a surprise victory. Orlovsky explained his vote by arguing that Jackson was the best quarterback, but Allen provided more value to the Buffalo Bills.
“The Bills were the No. 2 seed. Josh had a 40 touchdown, eight turnover, 14 sack season. The Bills didn’t have an elite defense. The Bills had a very good run game, not a great run game. They didn’t have elite perimeter players in any regard. The way that Josh played this season and the different style that he played brought tremendous value to their football team.
“Lamar’s season was absolutely sensational. He was probably the best player in football this year. But value, and how much you impact your team, who you do it with and who you do it against, that’s where I thought Josh Allen had the upper hand.”
Domonique Foxworth and Jeff Saturday laughed at Dan Orlovsky’s explanation for splitting his All-Pro and MVP vote.
Saturday: “Is this MVP of the league or the Bills?”
Foxworth: “You’re trying to split the baby. You don’t have the heart to say what you actually want to say. …… pic.twitter.com/av9PZxf6PH
— Sarah Ellison (@sgellison) February 7, 2025
Fellow panelists Domonique Foxworth and Jeff Saturday were not on board with Orlovsky’s explanation. Foxworth accused Orlovsky of “trying to find a semantics trap door” to ensure that each quarterback received an honor.
Jackson was viewed as the favorite to win MVP in part because he was named first-team All-Pro in a fairly decisive result. The same pool of 50 AP voters determines both awards, so it stood to reason that if a clear majority felt that Jackson was the league’s best quarterback, he was also likely to win MVP honors. Instead, nine of those voters picked Allen as MVP despite giving Jackson the nod in All-Pro balloting, leading to an incredibly close victory for the Bills quarterback.
Jackson had a statistically superior season relative to Allen, besting Allen in yardage and total touchdowns. There was a perception, however, that Allen had fewer weapons to work with than Jackson did. That, combined with a murky definition of what “most valuable” means, appears to have tilted the scales in Allen’s favor in MVP voting.
