Last year's NFL MVP will not suit up for the Buffalo Bills during the sport's preseason, with Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills opting to wait until the games count to play for the AFC East stalwarts, with the three-time Pro Bowl QB sitting out for the first time in his career.
Allen becomes the latest past MVP winner to do so, joining Lamar Jackson of the Baltimore Ravens, who did not play for the team during the preseason before winning the award in 2019 and 2023, though football fans in New York will have to wait to see if the gamble by the Bills QB pays off.
With that in mind, the team at RotoWire.com took a look at how much the last five NFL MVP winners played in the preseason, with a theme emerging about usage rates.
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How NFL MVPs Have Fared in Preseason:
Source: NFL Preseason Stats
2024: Josh Allen (Bills QB): 1 game played, 2/3 (66.7%), 22 yards, 0 touchdowns, 0 interceptions
2023: Lamar Jackson (Ravens QB): Did not play
2022: Patrick Mahomes (Chiefs QB): 2 games played, 12/17 (70.6%), 120 yards, 1 touchdown, 0 interceptions
2021: Aaron Rodgers (Packers QB): 1 game played, 5/8 (62.5%), 47 yards, 1 touchdown, 0 interceptions
2020: Aaron Rodgers (Packers QB): NO PRESEASON (COVID-19)
2019: Lamar Jackson (Ravens QB): Did not play
Totals: 19/28 (.679), 189 yards, 2 touchdowns, 0 interceptions
What We Can Learn About The Preseason And NFL MVPs
For starters, it seems like a clear sign that taking a lot of snaps in the preseason is not necessary for the NFL's top tier of quarterbacks, who are the ones that normally take home the MVP award at season's end.
That's because no MVP winner has appeared in more than two preseason games since 2019, while Aaron Rodgers suited up once in 2021 (as did Allen in 2024), while Mahomes was the only MVP winner to appear in multiple games, completing 5-of-8 passes for 47 yards and a touchdown in two games for the Kansas City Chiefs.
Last year's lack of preseason snaps clearly didn't hurt Allen's on-field productivity, as the eighth-year gunslinger out of Wyoming put up career highs in QBR (77.3) while tying his career mark for Approximate Value (20) in 17 games played for Buffalo, adding 531 yards and 12 scores on the ground for the franchise.
The same can be said for Jackson, who sat out the 2023 preseason before taking home his second MVP award, throwing for 3,678 yards and 24 touchdowns (to 7 interceptions), while adding 821 more on the ground with five scores for the Ravens.
Way back in 2019, Jackson's first MVP campaign followed a similar route, with the former Heisman Trophy winning QB throwing for 3,127 yards and 36 touchdowns in 15 games played, adding a career-high 1,206 yards on the ground with seven scores for the Ravens, with a career-high 25 AV, six more than he racked up when he won his second MVP in 2023.
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Will Lack of Preseason Snaps Impact Allen in 2025?
While only time will tell whether Allen's decision to sit out of the team's preseason games was smart or not, we do know that oddsmakers clearly aren't worried about his productivity in the year ahead, as he currently holds the second best MVP odds in the league (alongside Joe Burrow of the Cincinnati Bengals) on FanDuel Sportsbook, at +600.
Throw in the preseason passing yardage over/under of 3,775.5 on the New York-based sportsbook (slightly ahead of the 3,731 he posted in 2024 but behind his career average of 4,048 yards per season) and you have a decent snapshot of the type of production that oddsmakers see Allen putting up for Buffalo this season.
For now, what we know for sure is that Allen and the Bills are listed as a 1.5-point home favorite over Jackson and the Ravens on DraftKings Sportsbook when the dueling MVPs meet on Sunday Night Football in Week 1, with a -120 moneyline on Buffalo, compared with +100 odds on the visitors from the Charm City.
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