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Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen is widely regarded as one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. He has all of the desirable traits one could ask for in a quarterback: size, a cannon of an arm, elite-level athleticism, keen instincts, strong leadership traits and an intense competitive fire.
Ever since he ascended to a full-time starter role during his second season in Buffalo (2019), Allen has made the Bills a contender, having carried them to double-digit wins and perennial playoff berths.
Allen consistently ranks among the league’s passing leaders and annually draws consideration for Pro Bowl honors. But thus far, aside from a Super Bowl victory, one distinct honor has eluded Allen: the title of Most Valuable Player. The seventh-year veteran has garnered votes for both MVP and Offensive Player of the Year, but has always finished behind rivals like Patrick Mahomes (twice) and Lamar Jackson (twice).
However, because of his all-around dominant level of play, many of Allen’s peers predict that his wait for his first MVP could soon end. Allen was the leading vote-getter when NFL players were asked, as part of The Athletic’s second anonymous player poll, to name who would join Mahomes, Jackson and Aaron Rodgers to become the next active player to win an MVP award. That trio has combined to win the last six MVPs, with each player winning twice. Tom Brady in 2017 was the last player other than those three to win an MVP; no other active player has won the award.
The Athletic’s NFL beat writers conducted the poll in August and September. Reporters asked 110 players the same set of questions, though not every player answered every question. They were granted anonymity to freely offer their opinions on opponents, coaches, NFL rules, playing surfaces and more.
The results are as follows …
(Editor’s note: In some cases, the combined percentages of all the answers to a question may not add up to 100 percent, because individual percentages have been rounded up or down to the nearest tenth of a percentage point. Half-votes were awarded if a player gave two answers to a question. Players were not required to answer every question.)
Allen, with 18 votes, received his props from peers across the league. He led the Bills to a 3-0 start this season before falling Sunday night to the Baltimore Ravens. He’s sporting a career-best completion percentage of 69.3, has seven touchdown passes, no interceptions and two rushing touchdowns. He had close competition as the Cincinnati Bengals’ Joe Burrow finished just two votes behind, followed by San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey (11 votes) in third. But a lot of players like Allen to earn some hardware.
“I feel like he’s due for one,” one player who picked Allen said. “I don’t know when, but he’s going to get one.”
Added another: “Josh should have won it the year (2023) Lamar did. If you look at any stat in that category, put them together, tell me how that worked out. I don’t get it.”
Said a third, “Josh Allen. It should be a defensive player, but it won’t be.”
If a defensive player were to take home the honor, who would it be? The Las Vegas Raiders’ Maxx Crosby and Cleveland Browns’ Myles Garrett both received votes.
Other non-quarterbacks receiving votes included the Atlanta Falcons’ Bijan Robinson, Philadelphia Eagles’ Saquon Barkley and Miami Dolphins’ Tyreek Hill.
As the NFL has evolved into a pass-happy league over the last two decades, a game-changing wide receiver has become essential. Understanding this, the players polled chose Hill (15 votes) and the Minnesota Vikings’ Justin Jefferson (13 1/2 votes) as their building blocks.
Hill’s impact on the game is undeniable. After helping the Kansas City Chiefs win a Super Bowl, he went to Miami, where he helped elevate Tua Tagovailoa to one of the NFL’s top passers and the Dolphins to the playoffs the past two seasons. Hill has recorded 1,700-plus receiving yards in back-to-back seasons and in 2023 led the league in yards (1,799) and receiving touchdowns (13).
“Tyreek Hill,” one player said definitively. “When I play Madden, that’s who I use.”
Another argued, “Got to take the highest-paid non-quarterback, and that’s Justin Jefferson.”
Pass rushers also garnered a great deal of consideration and respect.
Garrett finished third in the voting with 11 1/2 votes while the Dallas Cowboys’ do-it-all linebacker Micah Parsons finished fourth with 11 votes.
“That’s a great question. … I think Micah Parsons is a solid choice,” one player said. “I think that as a defensive lineman, he’s very versatile. You put him inside, outside, he can cover guys. So, kind of got a bit of a Swiss Army knife on defense.”
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NFL players crisscross the country (and at times, the globe) traveling to games, and they get a pretty good idea of what a city has to offer in terms of stadium atmosphere, hotel accommodations, restaurants and entertainment. So, when asked about their favorite road trip city, 18 players made Los Angeles the top choice.
“I feel like I don’t want to do too much on road trips anyways because it’s a business trip,” one player said. “But in terms of scenery, weather and all the rest of it, probably Los Angeles.”
Another said: “Anytime we go to L.A., Rams or Chargers. It’s L.A. The scenery is one of a kind.”
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Las Vegas, Seattle and Miami followed.
“It’s got to be Vegas. Vegas is sweet,” one player said. “You get the full glitz and glam of it. It’s got a great stadium. A ton of food options if you’re playing a night game there that you can go out to the night before.”
Some players voted for cities based on history or the stadium atmosphere, despite the undesirable aspects of the same trip.
“It may change but I would say Kansas City,” one voter said. “The locker room is trash but the stadium and atmosphere are cool. So I don’t think it gets any better, which I hate saying because I hate the Chiefs.”
History isn’t everything for some. The leading vote-getter for least favorite trip was Green Bay despite Lambeau Field ranking among the most hallowed grounds in football.
“It’s always cold,” one player said. “There’s not a lot to do there. I love the stadium, though.”
Added another, “It sucks. There’s nothing to do. The food stinks. It’s cold, obviously. It just feels like you’re in a tundra.”
Others listed a limited number of dining options for their dissatisfaction with Green Bay.
Despite Lambeau Field’s iconic history, players do not enjoy visiting Green Bay’s frozen tundra. (Stacy Revere / Getty Images)
A lack of bustling entertainment, diverse food options and unfavorable weather conditions prompted other players to pick Buffalo, with one player lamenting, “They ain’t even got Uber Black.”
Interestingly, New York ranked third in the voting, but some of that has to do with the fact that the Jets and Giants play in East Rutherford, N.J., and teams have to stay too far away from New York City to enjoy the Big Apple. Players mentioned MetLife Stadium’s playing surface as another negative.
Meanwhile, others had strong words for Pittsburgh.
“I would say Pittsburgh, because it smells like piss in their locker room,” one player said.
“Pittsburgh. Even though it’s my vibe: tough. It’s just always gray and s—ty weather there,” another added.
Playing surfaces have generated a lot of discussion in recent years because of the commonly held belief among players that natural turf is more forgiving and leads to fewer injuries than artificial turf.
The NFL Players Association has encouraged players to lobby for the NFL to require all teams to switch to natural grass fields, and the players’ union leaders have urged owners and league officials accordingly. So it’s no surprise players voted stadiums with natural grass as their favorite surfaces.
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Which NFL stadiums have artificial turf and which have grass?
San Francisco’s Levi’s Stadium (10 votes) led the way with Kansas City’s GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium (nine votes) and Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium (nine votes) following closely behind. Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium — which is a dome but stores the playing surface outdoors on transportable plates and then rolls the surface inside for game days — drew high marks as well with 8 1/2 votes.
“Anybody with grass,” one player said. “I don’t think I can complain about anything with grass.”
One of his peers pointed out an exception, however.
“Any place with grass — except Green Bay. Their grass stinks.”
Grass is always the top choice, but some artificial surfaces prove better than others, players say, as evidenced by SoFi’s ranking.
“I like the surface in Las Vegas. It was real nice,” one player said, before adding, “SoFi wasn’t too bad even though it’s turf and your body feels like crap after. It was a pretty good feeling. The Cowboys one wasn’t bad either but that’s obviously turf again. Your body doesn’t feel good after the game, but during the game, you feel a lot quicker, which is cool. But I’d probably go Raiders. I like that grass a lot.”
Another offered the following insight: “I like (Philadelphia’s) Linc a lot. Obviously, a big fan of grass fields, and also like the deeper grass. It makes you feel like you really got stability and the ability to cut whenever you need to.”
One of the most popular figures of the 2023 NFL season wasn’t even a member of the league. Pop superstar-turned-Chiefs fan Taylor Swift may have generated as many headlines as Mahomes, the quarterback of her boyfriend Travis Kelce’s team.
What seemed like half of the NFL’s fan base bemoaned the three-second spurts in which TV cameras captured Swift cheering at Chiefs games while the other half couldn’t get enough of her.
But what did the football players themselves think of the Swiftie craze?
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A whopping 74 of the 102 players who answered this question said they viewed the singer’s interest in the game (and the coverage that stemmed from it) as a positive. Just five players viewed it as a negative while 23 were somewhere in the middle on the Swift-NFL union.
“I think it’s been positive for the league,” one player said. “I think that at the end of the day, it’s a business and you need to get as many eyes on it as possible. And she brings a lot of eyes, so, you know, if that increases the salary cap, I don’t think anybody’s gonna be too mad about that one.”
An opposite opinion: “I feel like she is getting unnecessary coverage,” a player said. “There was the whole NFL opening season video on Twitter and she was featured five times and our quarterback was featured none. That’s not even right. She is not the NFL.”
FOOTBALL IS BACK THIS WEEK 🏈 🚨 pic.twitter.com/YVR8kbZnfm
— NFL (@NFL) September 2, 2024
Another player viewed Swift’s presence at games as both positive and negative.
“It’s bringing more attention to the game,” he said, “but I feel like they’ve been using her face. If she’s at a game, they probably show her like six, seven times. People get … sick of it if they keep doing it over and over again. So I think they’ve got to find a balance.”
Some players simply didn’t care.
“I’ll jam to some Taylor Swift, but I don’t give a s— if she’s at the game or not,” one player said.
Last season we asked players to name the biggest trash-talker. This year, we broadened the question to most annoying, leaving it to the players’ discretion to decide what qualified as annoying. Well, last year’s biggest trash-talker, Philadelphia Eagles defensive back C.J. Gardner-Johnson, took the crown again.
“Yap yap yap,” one player said of the sixth-year veteran.
Philadelphia’s C.J. Gardner-Johnson has a well-earned reputation for in-game talking. (Mitchell Leff / Getty Images)
Gardner-Johnson led the field with 14 votes. Second place went to Raiders defensive tackle Christian Wilkins (eight votes), who was described as “a different type of s— talker,” while his teammate Crosby came in third with five votes. This was the question most often skipped by players, with only 67 of the 110 we spoke to offering a response.
Kelce received three votes, though at least one was due to no fault of his own.
“It’s because the camera pans over to Taylor Swift every time he catches a pass,” he said. “It’s so annoying. That’s annoying.”
Pick up The Athletic 2024 Fantasy Football Guide to read expert evaluations & everything you need to know to win your fantasy football league.
Pick up The Athletic 2024 Fantasy Football Guide to read expert evaluations.
The decision to make flag football an Olympic sport beginning with the 2028 games has sparked debate over which NFL players would shine on this global stage, and so we asked this group of players for their thoughts on this matter.
It’s no surprise that Mahomes — a true wizard on the field — received a number of votes. But he wasn’t the most popular nomination for best potential flag football star.
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That distinction went to Hill, who is among the fastest, shiftiest and most elusive players in the NFL. It wasn’t even close. Hill received 76 votes while Jefferson finished second with 47. Jackson and Mahomes shared third-place honors as the top quarterbacks with 33 votes apiece.
“Oh, I would go Tyreek Hill No. 1,” one player said. “I’m assuming I’ve got to get a quarterback to throw the ball. Probably go Patrick Mahomes, No. 1. I feel like he already kind of plays backyard football, so that’d be a pretty natural thing for him. And then, I think three, I would go Justin Jefferson.”
Said another, “Lamar, No. 1. One hundred percent Tyreek Hill and bro from the Chiefs, the fast cat, Xavier Worthy.”
Another player called for a reunion of Rodgers and his former Packers teammate Davante Adams, who just so happens to be back on the trade block after requesting a departure from Las Vegas.
“That chemistry between Rodgers and Adams, they’ve got the best chemistry as a quarterback-receiver duo in my opinion,” he said.
The legalization of sports betting caused the NFL to add another set of rules to the collective bargaining agreement. The rules prohibit players from betting on NFL games and also bar them from betting on any non-NFL sporting event on team property or while on work trips. Violation of those rules has led to the suspensions of 11 players since 2022.
To ensure that players have a painstakingly clear understanding of what constitutes a gambling violation and what punishments they would face, the NFL this year instituted mandatory in-person training sessions during the offseason and in the preseason.
Players were asked if they believed that the NFL is doing enough to educate them on the expectations and rules regarding gambling.
The overwhelming majority of players polled (90 out of 108) gave the league a thumbs up.
“I believe so,” one player said. “I feel like they tell you what you need to know, what not to do. … Sometimes guys maybe forget, but I feel like they did enough.”
Just 13 players believed the NFL could do more to educate players, while five said they remained undecided.
Some players said that before this year, the NFL wasn’t as thorough in its education, but that they believed the intensified efforts have cleared things up.
“The first year, there was a little bit of gray area of what guys could do,” one player said. “I know a guy got suspended who didn’t truly understand that if you’re on a (team) bus, then you can’t do it. I think once those types of things happened, they’ve done a way better job for sure.”
Every few years, the NFL seemingly opens a new stadium to replace an aging structure. In other cases, stadiums require multi-million dollar renovations. Leading up to the construction or renovation projects, a great deal of negotiating takes place between teams and the officials in the localities that house those stadiums. The matter often sparks great debate because most NFL owners request funding to assist in these construction or renovation projects.
NFL players appear divided on whether the NFL — a multi-billion dollar industry — should use taxpayer funds to build or improve stadiums, with 43 players supporting taxpayer funds and 36 against. Another 22 players were either undecided, didn’t have enough information or felt it depended on the situation.
Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium, opened in 2020, is a rare NFL stadium built entirely with private funding. (Harry How / Getty Images)
“To an extent, I’m for it,” one player said. “A lot of these franchises and stadiums are huge parts of these cities and the fabric of entire regions, but I also get that tax money could go to a whole hell of a lot better things than football stadiums.”
Others disagreed.
“I think the NFL makes enough money to be able to afford nice stadiums without it coming from the taxpayers from those respective cities,” another player said. “When you talk about stuff that actually affects the community, like police and schooling and medical stuff, I think those things come first.”
(Top illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photos of Justin Jefferson, Josh Allen and Tyreek Hill: Alika Jenner, Michael Owens and Perry Knotts / Getty Images)
