There was a lot of drama at NFL Honors on Thursday and most of that came from the MVP race. In one of the closest votes of the night, Josh Allen ended up taking home the award after edging out Lamar Jackson. 

The fact that Allen won was so shocking that even Allen was surprised by the result. 

“I was pretty surprised, given what we know about how the voting goes,” Allen said in a press conference after winning the award. “Lamar was very deserving of this as well.”

So why was Allen surprised by his win? Why is this viewed as controversial at all? 

First, it should be noted that this isn’t a situation where Allen didn’t deserve to win, it was controversial because it was an unprecedented result based on the voting history of the award.

How the voting process works

The MVP award is voted on by 50 voters who are all selected by the Associated Press. Those same 50 voters also vote on the All-Pro team and Jackson was voted the first-team All-Pro quarterback. Jackson got 30 of the 50 first-place votes in the All-Pro voting while Allen only got 18, which is important to note here, because the All-Pro quarterback almost always ends up getting the MVP. 

In any season where a quarterback won MVP over the past 50 years, there were only two instances where the first-team All-Pro quarterback DIDN’T win MVP and both came under peculiar circumstances: 

• 1987: John Elway wasn’t a first-team All-Pro, but he did win MVP. However, this win came during a strike-shortened season where he only played in 12 games. Also, Joe Montana and Jerry Rice, who finished second and third that year seemed to split the vote, which paved the way for Elway to win.  
• 2003: Steve McNair wasn’t a first-team All-Pro, but he did win MVP. However, he won co-MVP with Peyton Manning, who was the first-team All-Pro quarterback so the first-team All-Pro still won the MVP in 2003. 

Now, let’s get to the MVP voting. 

How the MVP voting broke down

Although Jackson got 30 first-place votes in the All-Pro voting, he only received 23 in the MVP voting, which means at least seven voters voted him as the best quarterback, but not the MVP. As for Allen, he only got 18 All-Pro votes, but he got 27 first-place votes for MVP, so he gained nine votes. And again, keep in mind, the same 50 voters vote for both the All-Pro team and MVP. 

MVP votes (first-second-third-fourth-fifth)

• Allen: 27-22-1-0-0: 383 points
• Jackson: 23-26-0-1-0: 362 points

All voters are required to turn in their votes shortly after the regular season ends, so postseason play isn’t factored into the voting process here. 

Not only did Jackson lose several first-place votes in the MVP race, but someone actually gave him a FOURTH-PLACE vote (We took at close look at that situation and you can check that out here). 

At least one voter, Lindsay Jones of the Ringer, was willing to explain why she split her vote with Jackson as first-team All-Pro and Allen as the MVP. 

“Splitting my ballot was my way of acknowledging that Jackson played quarterback better than anyone this season, while Allen was the defining, and yes, most valuable, football character of the regular season,” Jones wrote in a story you can read here. 

The AP also noted that the voting for the offensive player of the year voting may have impacted the thinking for some voters. Lamar Jackson got 12 first-place votes for Offensive Player of the Year while Allen only got one. According to the AP, NINE of the voters who had Jackson on top for the OPOY also had Allen as their MVP, so there was definitely an effort by several voters to reward both quarterbacks for their outstanding seasons. 

One thing about the All-Pro vote is that Joe Burrow received two votes, but zero MVP votes, so those two voters also switched over and based on the fact that Allen gained nine overall votes, it’s likely that the Burrow voters flipped to Allen for MVP. 

The reason this was shocking is because it broke more than five decades of precedent and it will be interesting to see if this year was an anomaly or if this is how things will be going forward.