Bills Legend Steve Tasker Questions Josh Allen's Lack of MVP: 'Wait For It ...'
Special teams legend Steve Tasker believes that voters for the 2023 NFL MVP and Comeback Player of the Year Awards got it wrong.
The former Buffalo Bills star called out those respectively placed Lamar Jackson and Joe Flacco into those spots, citing scoring statistics that the former teammates' powers combined couldn't match. Such metrics, in Tasker's eyes, should've sent MVP to Josh Allen while indirectly hinting Damar Hamlin was hustled out of the comeback honor.
"(In the) 2023 regular season and postseason combined ... Joe Flacco (comeback POY) & Lamar Jackson (MVP) combined for 48 total TD's and 18 int's," Tasker wrote in an X post earlier last week. "Josh Allen had... 51 total TD's and...wait for it... the same 18 int's."
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While that sounds relatively alarming from Allen's perspective, the point Tasker was trying to make is that the Buffalo thrower seemed to be punished by his high turnover rate while Jackson and Flacco got off relatively scott-free.
One important caveat Tasker left out in support of his argument was that Flacco, widely credited with saving the Cleveland Browns' season after posting a 4-1 record as an emergency starter, threw nine interceptions in his six appearances, including one in the team's one-sided postseason loss to the Houston Texans. Few, if any, envisioned the aging Flacco leaving a lasting impact on the NFL season, but many felt that Hamlin was a shoo-in for the award after returning to the field less than a year after surviving a cardiac arrest episode during a January 2023 game in Cincinnati.
Allen has been the headliner of the Bills' recent runs of prosperity, by far their most successful showings since Tasker earned five All-Pro nominations amidst four consecutive Super Bowl showings.
While Allen has earned his share of professional accolades, MVP has been roundly denied to him thus far: he finished fifth in voting this time around, though he was afforded one first-place vote that denied Jackson unanimous honors. Earlier this decade, he placed second in the 2020 vote and third in 2022.
