The 2024 NFL Most Valuable Player award will likely go to either Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson.

Make no mistake, though: the most valuable player in the NFL in 2024 has been Joe Burrow.

Joe Burrow’s MVP case

Burrow’s performance on Saturday evening to lead the Cincinnati Bengals over the Denver Broncos was a microcosm of his season in a nutshell. In spite of the many flaws around him, he has consistently put his team in position to win. Sometimes, it’s not enough. Sometimes, it is. This week, it was both, as Burrow led the Bengals on a game-winning touchdown drive in overtime after Cade York had missed a chip-shot field goal on their previous possession.

Those are the types of heroics Burrow has had to pull off this season in order to win games. Of Cincinnati’s eight losses, seven were in one-score games and six of them came on occasions in which Burrow led the offense to at least 25 points. In four of them, the Bengals scored at least 30. Cincinnati has lost a game in which Burrow threw five touchdowns, another one in which he threw four, and three more in which he threw three.

All in all, Burrow’s numbers are better than any other quarterback in football this season. He leads the league in both passing yards and touchdowns, and also has a better completion percentage than both Allen and Jackson. Unfortunately for him, though, Allen and Jackson are on better teams, which is why Burrow isn’t going to win MVP — and which makes one wonder as to why to even bother calling it the most “valuable” player award.

Putting the “V” back in MVP

It shouldn’t even need to be explained that professional football, more than perhaps any major sport in America, is a team game. A quarterback only plays in half of his team’s snaps, and that’s not even taking into account the impact that special teams can make — again, see Burrow having to come to the rescue an extra time on Saturday because his kicker missed what should have been a layup. Sure, winning is important when measuring value, but context matters, and when a quarterback has the numbers Burrow has on a team as mediocre as the Bengals are, common sense should tell you that it’s not because he isn’t doing his job.

Penalizing a player in MVP discussions because the team around him has failed him completely defeats the purpose of awarding a most valuable player. If anything, the fact that Burrow’s job this season has been considerably harder than Allen’s and Jackson’s should only help his case. Instead, though, voters will look at the Bengals’ 8-8 record and automatically disqualify him from the race. Why? Solely because the mob has decided that being on one of the best teams is a prerequisite for winning MVP. It’s an absolute joke, and a mentality that needs to die.

End Of Rant

Joe Burrow has been the best statistical quarterback in the NFL in 2024. Joe Burrow is also one of only 53 players on the Cincinnati Bengals, who are an average football team. Without him and a few other notable stars such as Ja’Marr Chase and Trey Hendrickson, they’d be a well below average team. That is the definition of a valuable player, and in a just world, MVP voters would acknowledge it.

Alas, we do not live in a just world. Narratives tend to prevail over substance, and that’s why Burrow’s historic season will likely end up falling through the cracks.