For the past 11 seasons, being named the AP first-team All-Pro quarterback was a prelude to winning the NFL’s MVP award.
There was some logic to that with quarterbacks providing the most value to a team and the same panel picking the All-Pro team and all of the awards.
There was a rare flip this year with Buffalo’s Josh Allen narrowly edging Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson in the MVP voting announced Thursday night after finishing second in All-Pro voting revealed last month.
This marked just the third time since the AP started handing out the Most Valuable Player award in 1961 that a player won at least a share of the MVP after not being voted first-team All-Pro. (The AP had a Most Outstanding Player award from 1957-60 and those winners also were first-team All-Pros).
So how did it happen this season:
The All-Pro votes
Let’s start with the All-Pro votes where Jackson had the edge. He received 30 of the 50 first-team All-Pro votes from a national panel of media members and 19 second-place votes. Allen got 18 first-place and 24 second-place votes, while Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow got the last two first-place votes, along with nine second-place votes.
What switched for MVP?
Several voters viewed the MVP vote differently. While Jackson and Allen finished 1-2 on 48 of the 50 ballots (Burrow and Saquon Barkley each got one second-place vote), Allen had the edge when it came to the top spot, gaining nine additional first-place votes from the All-Pro team with Jackson losing seven.
Allen also finished third on one ballot, and Jackson was fourth on another, but that had no impact on the winner.
Allen finished with 383 points based on scoring that gives out 10 points for a first-place vote, followed by five, three, two and one for the last four spaces. Jackson had 362 points.
How did Offensive Player of the Year play a role?
The AP also has several other awards, including Offensive Player of the Year. While that award has been given to non-quarterbacks the last five seasons, Jackson garnered significant support there.
He finished second to Barkley in that voting and got 12 first-place votes to the one for Allen, who came in sixth.
Nine of the voters who picked Jackson as the top offensive player chose Allen as MVP, accounting for almost all of the switched votes from the All-Pro team.
Jackson became the first player to finish second in both awards since Drew Brees in 2018.
Has this happened before?
There were two other seasons when a player won MVP after not being a first-team All-Pro. In 2003, Peyton Manning was the first-team All-Pro but shared the MVP with Steve McNair, who finished second in All-Pro voting.
Voters only selected first-place in the voting back then and both quarterbacks got 16 MVP votes after Manning had a 28½-16½ edge in All-Pro voting.
It also happened in the 1987 season with John Elway winning MVP after finishing second to Joe Montana in All-Pro voting.
There were 84 MVP votes that season and San Francisco had two candidates drawing support after Jerry Rice set an NFL record with 22 TD catches despite one game getting canceled because of a player strike and Rice sitting out three games with replacement players.
Elway also sat out all three replacement player games, while Montana crossed the picket line and played in two of them.
Elway got 36 votes for MVP, followed by Rice with 30 and Montana with 18.