At the start of December, it seemed like Josh Allen would cruise to the NFL MVP award with no competition. However, in the second half of the month, Allen’s productivity dropped, allowing Lamar Jackson to close the gap.
Advertisement
To make matters worse, reports now indicate that Allen is dealing with an injury, fueling concerns among the Bills Mafia that Lamar could overtake their quarterback by season’s end. However, Nick Wright isn’t buying any of that.
In the latest episode of the First Things First podcast, Nick cast his vote for Allen to win the NFL MVP this year — a shift from his initial pick, Saquon Barkley. While Nick conceded that Josh has struggled recently, he expressed unwavering confidence in the QB’s ability to regain control of the MVP race against the Jets this Sunday.
Nick pointed out that before their low-scoring game against the Rams, the Jets had allowed 26+ points in five consecutive games. So, with the Jets’ defense significantly weaker than it was under Saleh, Nick saw the upcoming matchup as an opportunity for Allen and his Bills to rack up points.
“I think he’s going to play really well… To the average fan, they still look at the Jets as a good defense even though the Jets haven’t been a good defense really since they fired Saleh and they’ve been a really bad defense. In the game against the Rams, they actually played well, but prior to that, they had allowed 26 or more points in five straight games.”
When asked if the freezing weather would hinder Josh, Nick pointed to the game’s importance to the Bills as a solution to the weather.
Apart from O.J. Simpson [1973] and Thurman Thomas [1991], the Bills haven’t had an MVP winner in their ranks. With Josh, the AFC East contender has a shot at having their third-ever MVP after 34 years.
Moreover, a convincing victory against the Jets would allow Sean McDermott to rest his players for the playoffs in the final regular season game against the Texans. Safe to say, the Bills have two strong incentives to give their all against the Jets.
That said, a convincing performance against the Jets would greatly benefit Josh’s chances. The current odds stand at -250 for Josh and +160 for Lamar. The key difference, however, is that Jackson has only one game left to shine, while Josh has two — a big cushion for the Bills QB.
As things stand, it’s highly likely that Josh will dethrone Lamar as the NFL MVP. For the Bills locker room, however, this is already a reality, as Josh’s O-Line recently gifted him a $50,000 diamond MVP chain to celebrate their talisman’s upcoming “win.”
