The 2025 NFL offseason has been nearly perfect for Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen. To start, he captured his first MVP award in early February. Since then, his front office has signed his most productive receiver (Khalil Shakir) and best pass rusher (Gregory Rousseau) to contract extensions. To cap it off, he received the largest contractual guarantee in NFL history on Sunday.
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All of this followed a tremendous off-field development in late November. During Buffalo’s bye week, he got engaged to singer and actress Hailee Steinfeld. His incredibly dominant play in the aftermath of that event is likely what propelled him to his first-place MVP finish.
In November 2023, Dak Prescott and his long-time girlfriend, Sarah Jane Ramos, announced they were having a baby. This happened in Prescott’s best statistical season, where he set a career-high in completion percentage (69.5%) and led the NFL in touchdown passes (36).
Prescott snagged second-team All-Pro honors and finished second in the MVP race in 2023. Then his daughter, Margaret, entered the world on February 22, 2024. Seven months later, he received the largest contract (by annual salary) in NFL history.
Jalen Hurts got engaged to Bry Burrows in September 2024 and he went on to win the Super Bowl just months later. Now in the offseason after the most dominant run of his career, who knows what kind of massive extension he’s going to score with the Eagles.
In Chad Johnson’s opinion, Allen’s recent run of success is a direct result of his engagement. On the latest episode of Nightcap, the two-time All-Pro suggested something similar transpires every time a quarterback gets hitched.
“You notice something… when it comes to quarterbacks? Every time they get married, every time they get engaged… everything else they got going on falls into place… the common denominator is marriage… so what does that tell you [that] you and I need to do?”
Josh Allen has been on another level since getting engaged@BuffaloBills @JoshAllenQB pic.twitter.com/qZDZbcYhqP
— NFL on CBS (@NFLonCBS) December 16, 2024
It admittedly feels more like happenstance than a potential template for the league’s younger signal-callers. However, Sharpe believes there’s something to Johnson’s assertion. Not only for quarterbacks, but NFL players in general. To him, this stabilization of home life helps keep the focus on football.
“[It] keeps you out the streets… [keeps] you home studying… you can vent when things are not going well. They understand your situation… this is a very physically demanding, very emotionally demanding game, very psychologically demanding game.”
Sometimes, of course, football can be a detriment to such things. We unfortunately saw this occur with Tom Brady and long-time wife Gisele Bundchen at the end of his NFL career. But prior to that stage, Brady’s marriage undoubtedly helped him become the league’s greatest player.
With Steinfeld, Allen will wake up next to someone every day who understands the massive responsibilities on his plate. She didn’t get to be a famous actress without some hard work and dedication. Together, they can elevate one another to an even higher level. And that, for the Bills Mafia, could mean that Buffalo’s first-ever Super Bowl championship is on the horizon.
