Pat Patriot
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- Mar 19, 2019
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Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson deserved to be the unanimous MVP. But it’s unexpected that he was.
The same 50 voters who determine the MVP award on a one-vote-per-voter basis (with no second-place or third-place ballots) also select the All-Pro team, with all votes due at the same time. So when the All-Pro team balloting revealed that Jackson did not secure all 50 votes for the quarterback position, with Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson getting three of them, many assumed that three MVP votes would land with Wilson as well.
That wasn’t the case, creating a bizarre dichotomy in the minds of Bill Polian, Pat Kirwan, and Jim Miller, who each voted for Wilson as the All-Pro quarterback, but who voted for quarterback Jackson as the MVP.
Although the ballots are cast at the same time, it’s possible that one or more of them, stung by criticism arising from their failure to recognize that Jackson was the best quarterback of the 2019 regular season, contacted the AP and changed their votes, in order to avoid a Super Bowl Eve repeat of that same scrutiny.
Ultimately, the right decision was made, and the right message was sent: Jackson’s special season deserved not just the same MVP award that one person gets every year but the only-the-second-time-ever designation of being not the first choice but the only choice. (Tom Brady won unanimous MVP in 2010.) Although reasonable minds may differ on plenty of subjects regarding the performances of the best of the best NFL players and coaches, Jackson’s incredible year, with both a single-season quarterback rushing record and a league-leading number of touchdown passes for a team that won 14 of 16 games, deserved to join the ultra-exclusive club of unanimous MVP winners.
Which is definitely a much smaller club than the all-time unanimous All-Pros. Which makes the disconnect between the two votes even more strange.