Buffalo Rumblings
Josh Allen is the first Buffalo Bills quarterback to win NFL MVP.
The Buffalo Bills like to do great things just every once in awhile. Like put together championship teams every couple of decades and have a guy win MVP once every 20 or 30 years.
On Thursday night, Josh Allen became just the third Buffalo Bills player to receive the Associated Press’s Most Valuable Player Award – and the first quarterback in franchise history. His predecessors are names that fans have heard more than once this year alone as Allen built his case for the MVP award. Thurman Thomas and O.J. Simpson – both Hall of Fame running backs, both players whose numbers Allen, as a quarterback, has surpassed in just seven seasons in the NFL.
Thurman Thomas was a member of the Super Bowl-era Buffalo Bills, and while then-quarterback Jim Kelly was runner up (18 votes), it was Thomas (39) who was voted the league’s MVP in 1991. That season, Thomas rushed for 1407 yards while adding another 631 receiving yards on his way to 12 combined touchdowns.
Previous to the 2024 season, Thomas held the Bills’ all-time record for rushing touchdowns. But that record now belongs to Josh Allen. In Week 17, the Buffalo quarterback scored his 65th career rushing touchdown taking the lead and not looking back.
Almost two decades before Thomas, it was O.J. Simpson who took the MVP honor back to Buffalo for the first time. In 1973, Simpson rushed for 2003 yards and 12 touchdowns in a 14-game season, breaking Jim Brown’s record of 1863. In Week 10 of this past season, Allen passed Simpson on the franchise’s list of rushing touchdowns. Simpson received 74 of the 78 votes in the MVP race that season.
Before Buffalo joined the NFL, one quarterback on their team actually won the AP’s AFL MVP vote. Kemp led the Bills to the AFL Championship in 1965 and was named the Most Valuable Player in the league.
He threw for 2368 yards and 10 touchdowns to 18 interceptions with 49 rushing yards anf four touchdowns. Those were pretty efficient stats for the day, but like voters today, the AP tends to give it to the QB of the best team.
The AP’s AFL Player of the Year in 1963, Gilchrist led the AFL with 1096 rushing yards averaging 78.3 yards per game while scoring 13 touchdowns. The Bills team around Gilchrest was not very good, and they finished 7-6-1 in third place in the AFL East after a five-game losing streak to start the year.
The list of firsts for Allen during the 2024 season far surpasses the lists of firsts for the Bills’ previous MVP winners:
