Few media personalities are as enamoured with Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson as Colin Cowherd, but the Fox Sports pundit still thinks Buffalo Bills QB Josh Allen deserved to win the AP NFL MVP award.
Cowherd believes Allen denied Jackson a third award because Baltimore’s QB1 became overshadowed by running back Derrick Henry. As Cowherd put it on an episode of “The Herd” podcast, “when Derrick Henry arrived in Baltimore, defenses playing the Ravens had to make choices and concessions. And many times it felt like the key to that team was not Lamar Jackson, it was Derrick Henry.”
To underscore the difference Henry made, Cowherd also noted how “as much as Josh Allen got support from James Cook, he was the 16th leading rusher in the league. Receiving core? They lost Stefon Diggs, yet he won 10 of his last 12, one pick after December 1st, I think.”
Cowherd essentially made a simple distinction between Allen and Jackson. One based on the latter having more to work with than the former.
Allen doing more with less was summed up by these words from Cowherd, “when you play the Bills, there is one and one mission only, and that is to stop Josh Allen. When you played the Ravens this year, some teams made the choice to concentrate on Derrick Henry.”
This is a smart argument, but the idea Jackson was less award-worthy because of his supporting cast is tough for some to take. Particularly when his superior statistics were enough to make him the first-team All-Pro quarterback, a distinction that’s historically been matched by an MVP gong.