It's looking like the MVP race is going to come down to Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson or Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen and Week 18 might be what settles the score. Initially, this felt like an advantage for the Ravens, as they still have a division title to play for while the Bills, after locking up the second seed, don't have anything to play for.
One would think this would officially tip the scale in Jackson's favor, as the Ravens will hope to lock up the AFC North title with a win over Cleveland on Saturday. It'll be a standalone game too so Jackson, once again, will be in the spotlight and able to wow people with no other games on in the moment.
Well, the Bills have decided to play Allen a little bit during their Sunday match-up against the Patriots, clearly a ploy to help get Allen his first MVP award. This feels a little silly on Buffalo's end considering that if they lose Allen, they have no shot to get to a Super Bowl. Why risk his health?
Josh Allen continues to try and pad his résumé in tight MVP race
If the roles were reversed and the Ravens had the two-seed locked up with nothing to play for in Week 18, it's doubtful that John Harbaugh and the coaching staff would risk Jackson's health for an award. It's also worth noting that Jackson already has two MVP awards in his trophy case so while winning a third one would be great, it likely wouldn't be as important to him as it would be for Allen to win his first.
Unfortunately, the sad reality here is that because Allen has yet to be crowned the league's Most Valuable Player, he'll probably win the honor even if Jackson has put up better numbers. If Jackson didn't have an MVP to his name already, he'd probably be getting the title.
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For Jackson to pull ahead in the MVP sweepstakes, he needs to have another electrifying game on Saturday and do enough that the Bills end up barely playing Allen. While Ravens fans would much rather have a Super Bowl run from their talented quarterback, it's hard not to want to see him add a third MVP trophy to his case.
We'll see which quarterback pulls ahead in the race after what's hopefully going to be an exciting conclusion to the regular season in Week 18.
