Voter fatigue is a real thing in sports awards that are voted on. Some people find it boring to vote for the same player year after year. Here is why the NFL would be succumbing to voter fatigue if this player were to win MVP.
This season, there are three serious candidates for MVP. Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, and Saquon Barkley all have legitimate cases as to why they should win this prestigious award. With the unlikelihood of a shared MVP happening this season, the only one real guy who deserves this award is Lamar Jackson.
The Ravens QB was lights out the entire regular season, becoming only the second quarterback to throw for 40+ touchdowns while having less than five interceptions (Aaron Rodgers was the first). Unfortunately, voter fatigue is already setting in for Lamar, who won the same award last year. People are starting to push for a Josh Allen MVP, a big reason being because he “deserves” one, and because he beat Lamar in the playoffs.
If the NFL voting committee falls to voter fatigue and chooses Josh Allen as the league’s MVP, it would set a terrible precedent for years to come. It would show voters and fans alike that individual stats don’t matter, and the team around you and the success of said team means more. This would completely take the spirit out of the award, making it more of a “best team” award than anything. Yes, it sucks that Josh Allen hasn’t earned an MVP yet, but giving in to voter fatigue would be a fatal mistake by the league.
It’s hard to argue that when Jackson won the award last year he didn’t have the best stats. However, when compared to the other candidates and the lack of surrounding cast he had, Lamar was the best choice. People also argue that Josh Allen deserved the MVP last season as well. That being said, with the amount of turnovers he had it was much harder to make an argument for him. At the end of the day, he still won and there’s no changing that. It is a completely new year, and now the Ravens QB does have the stats for a case to become a back-to-back MVP winner.
Throwing for over 4,00 yards, 40+ TDs, and again only four interceptions is quite impressive for a guy who also ran for 900 yards. Some will argue that Derrick Henry coming to Baltimore and taking weight and pressure off of Jackson’s shoulder is a reason against Lamar’s MVP case. To that, one could easily say that Saquon had an amazing O-Line, or that Allen had James Cook emerge as a true RB1 in Buffalo.
People are clamoring for Saquon Barkley to take home the award, and there is good reason for that. There is less good reason for how people can make the argument that Josh Allen should win the MVP award over those two guys. For reference, Allen threw for 3731 yards, 28 TDs, and six interceptions. It should also be noted that he rushed for 531 yards. Every one of these stats is worse than Lamar’s, and it’s by a fairly large margin as well.
Josh only won one more game in the regular season than Jackson and lost to him and the Ravens in week four. That loss was a blowout 35-10 where Lamar played much better than Josh. It sucks to see such a good player get stifled both in the postseason against the Chiefs, and in the awards category, but that doesn’t mean that he deserves to win. Josh Allen is a great player, and will eventually win one, but this is just not the year.
I truly hope the voting committee doesn’t let voter fatigue sink in and hand the MVP award to Josh Allen or Saquon Barkley. Yes, Josh Allen beat the Ravens in the playoffs, but unfortunately, this is a regular-season award where stats do matter. I love Josh Allen and believe that the Bills superstar QB will win an MVP at least once in his career, but it is abundantly clear that Lamar Jackson was the best player in the NFL this season.
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