“It’s Hard to Ignore Lamar Jackson’s Season”: Shannon Sharpe & Chad Johnson Question Why Josh Allen Is the MVP Favorite

Lamar Jackson is a victim of his own high standards. Despite scoring 37 touchdowns for 3,787 yards this season, the Ravens star has been an afterthought in the NFL MVP race. Instead, Josh Allen is everyone’s favorite. And many, including the Nightcap crew, Shannon Sharpe and Chad Johnson, are baffled by this.

For Shannon, the fact that Lamar Jackson’s name isn’t being placed on the same pedestal as that of Josh Allen in the MVP race was a mystery. The Nightcap host had a simple question: if the decisions were being made based on the stats Jackson and Allen has put up so far, wouldn’t the Ravens star be an automatic favorite for the NFL MVP? Especially considering how far Jackson has come. Ocho wondered the same.

“It’s hard to ignore Lamar Jackson’s season. The man has 37 passing touchdowns with four interceptions and he’s around 3,700 yards, so he’s gonna be over 4,000 yards. Tell me, if you had Lamar Jackson passing for 40 touchdowns and 4,000 passing yards in the season when he got drafted… that wasn’t on anybody’s bingo card.”

In the Nightcap crew’s eyes, the problem with Lamar stems from his empty trophy cabinet. As talented as Lamar is, it’s no secret that he is the only two-time NFL MVP to have never laid his hands on the Lombardi Trophy. Thus, when you compare him with the ones competing for the NFL MVP this season, his empty trophy gallery sticks out like a sore thumb.

There are only two other active NFL players, apart from Lamar, who have won the MVP — Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes. And as we all know, their trophy cabinet is plush with the Super Bowl trophies, especially Mahomes’.

This, according to Sharpe, is what gives Allen an edge. The Buffalo quarterback gets to be a favorite simply because he hasn’t won the MVP trophy yet, while Lamar isn’t a favorite because he has won two — and, of course, he has yet to win a Super Bowl.

“They say, ‘Well you don’t judge Josh Allen, but Josh Allen ain’t got no MVPs.’ Well, you don’t judge Joe Burrow, but he ain’t got no MVPs; Justin Herbert ain’t got no MVPs. So we have to judge Lamar because there’s only three guys that got MVPs in the regular season that’s still playing: Aaron Rogers got four MVPs, he has a Super Bowl, and Patrick Mahomes got three Super Bowls.”

Unfortunately for the Ravens star, Allen has already left him behind in the race by quite a margin. According to the latest betting odds, Allen is the clear favorite at -800 due to his big wins over the Chiefs and the Lions, along with his stellar stats of 3,395 yards, 25 TDs, and 5 interceptions.

He is set to face three mediocre teams in the remaining season: the Patriots twice and the Jets once. It will be hard to lose a game in these weeks, so his position in the MVP odds will only improve further.