The NFL MVP for the 2022 season has been crowned and it's not Joe Burrow. That's not exactly surprising, even to Cincinnati Bengals fans but what is surprising is that Burrow didn't receive a single vote yet Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills did. Burrow finished in fourth place behind Patrick Mahomes, Jalen Hurts, and Allen.
Look, Allen is a great quarterback, no one is debating that. It was crystal clear, though, that Burrow was a much better player overall than Allen was in the big games. The only stat that Allen surpassed Burrow in was in rushing yards (762 for Allen, 257 for Burrow; Allen had seven rushing touchdowns and Burrow had five).
Otherwise, Burrow had the better numbers. He threw for more yards (4,475 vs 4,283) and had fewer interceptions (12 vs Allen's 14). The two both threw for 35 touchdowns.
AP NFL MVP voting breakdown:
— Rob Maaddi (@RobMaaddi) February 10, 2023
10 points for 1; 5 points for 2; 3 for 3; 2 for 4; 1 for 5.
First-place votes:
1. Patrick Mahomes - 48
2. Jalen Hurts - 1
3. Josh Allen - 1 pic.twitter.com/agBtDW2XGr
How did Josh Allen get an MVP vote and Joe Burrow didn't?
I'm not upset that Mahomes won the MVP award or that Hurts got more votes than Burrow because neither of those things surprised me. Mahomes deserved the MVP award after the season he put together and had Hurts not gotten injured and missed time, he'd have been a worthy recipient as well.
It's no secret that the Bills were the NFL darlings this past season and that was on full display from Week 1 through the playoffs. Even in the Bengals' blowout win against Buffalo in the AFC Divisional round, there were some questionable calls against the Bengals that should have put the game further out of reach for Cincinnati.
Allen was the guy the NFL wanted to win the MVP award entering the season and through the first six games, it felt like he was the obvious frontrunner. After the Bills beat the Chiefs in Week 6, however, Allen and the rest of the Bills team suffered injuries and weren't the same team. Allen was throwing picks in key moments, losing fumbles when he couldn't do so, and cost his team several games because of those mistakes.
Burrow had a rough start to the season but rebounded and was clutch in the Bengals' toughest stretch of games. Maybe the person who voted for Allen saw his rushing numbers and also gave him points ofr his team being more banged up. Who knows, really?
Hey, maybe this is something else that will fuel Burrow in the 2023 season.