One of the most anticipated head-to-head matchups of the 2024 NFL season played out in New Orleans this February. It wasn’t the Super Bowl.
This happened three days earlier inside a nearby theater.
At the end of the NFL’s annual awards show, Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen and his Baltimore Ravens counterpart, Lamar Jackson, waited for the announcement of the league’s most valuable player. Jackson had won MVP honors in 2019 and 2023, and during the previous four months had recorded the best statistical season of his seven-year career. It earned him All-Pro honors at the position. Allen trailed in most statistical categories but ended the season on a tear.
Yet that night in New Orleans, it was Allen, not Jackson, who was named the NFL’s MVP — the first in 21 years to win the award despite not being a first-team All-Pro selection.
“The voters chose who they wanted to pick,” Jackson told journalists this week. “It is what it is.”
A case could be made that Buffalo’s matchup against Baltimore on Sunday in Week 1 of the 2025 NFL season was scheduled as far back as the date of that awards show, and the intrigue it sparked.
This marks the first Week 1 meeting ever between quarterbacks who finished first and second in the MVP race the previous season, according to research by NBC Sports. But as the new season begins, the real question is not whether Jackson or Allen will hold an edge over the other, but whether either can at last lead their team past Kansas City.
In the AFC, reaching the Super Bowl has meant encountering the Chiefs. They have made the conference’s championship game for six consecutive seasons, a streak that includes denying Super Bowl appearances to the Bills twice (in the 2020 and 2024 seasons) and the Ravens once (in 2023).
It’s unusual for quarterbacks as accomplished as Jackson and Allen to have never played for a league title at this point in their career. Of the 28 quarterbacks in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, 22 played in either the Super Bowl or the NFL championship (in the pre-Super Bowl era) within their career’s first seven seasons, according to Stathead. It speaks to the spell the Chiefs have held over the AFC under coach Andy Reid and quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
Since both Allen and Jackson entered the league together in 2018, Baltimore is 1-4 against Kansas City, including 0-1 in the playoffs, while allowing an average of 31.2 points. In the same span, the Ravens have held a .672 winning percentage against the rest of the NFL while allowing just 19.1 points. The Bills, meanwhile, are 4-1 against Kansas City in the regular season, but 0-4 in the playoffs, including 0-2 on Buffalo’s home field.
After the most recent loss in last season’s AFC championship, a reporter referred to Buffalo as a “city of losers,” a reference to the team’s twisted big-game history that included four consecutive Super Bowl losses in the 1990s. Bills coach Sean McDermott said one of his top goals this season was “changing the narrative on Buffalo,” he told The Buffalo News.
“It bothers me. It honestly pisses me off, because people don’t know this town. They don’t know how hard that is — to get to four straight Super Bowls. It’ll never happen again.”
But will another Bills Super Bowl appearance happen again? Bettors believe so, establishing the Bills and Ravens as the top betting favorites to make it this season, according to DraftKings odds.
Jackson’s and Allen’s credentials are like few others’ in NFL history. Allen’s 76 wins, 262 touchdowns and 30,595 yards are the most in history through the first seven seasons of a quarterback’s career. He won MVP honors last season in part because he had just become the first at his position to finish a season with at least 25 touchdown passes, 10 rushing touchdowns and fewer than 10 interceptions.
Jackson, meanwhile, was setting his own history last season, becoming the first quarterback with 40-plus touchdown passes and fewer than five interceptions — a stat line that reflected his development as a passer since entering the league as a devastating threat to take off and run.
“He’s as good as any passer that there’s ever been,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. “And I think now the numbers are proving that.”
Allen and the Bills are 3-2 against Jackson and the Ravens. Last season, the teams traded victories, with the Ravens winning in a resounding rout early in the season only for the Bills to win a narrow divisional-round playoff victory.
“You talk about Lamar, he’s one of the best players to touch the grass, honestly,” Allen said this week. “You can’t give him more opportunities than he needs. You can’t give him short fields.”
Week 1 storylines and matchups
Tampa Bay at Atlanta: Only Kansas City and Buffalo have won more consecutive division titles than the Buccaneers’ four straight. Michael Penix steps into his first full season as Atlanta’s starting quarterback.
Cincinnati at Cleveland: Edge rushers who ended trade requests with new contracts take the spotlight in the Browns’ Myles Garrett and Bengals’ Trey Hendrickson. Hendrickson led the NFL in sacks last season.
Miami at Indianapolis: Dolphins wideout Tyreek Hill averages the most receiving yards in season-opening games in NFL history at 112 yards per game. He’ll need a big game to keep coach Mike McDaniel off the hot seat.
Las Vegas at New England: New coaches Pete Carroll and Mike Vrabel are pinning their hopes on young offensive playmakers. Can Patriots quarterback Drake Maye and Raiders running back Ashton Jeanty deliver from the very start?
Arizona at New Orleans: Saints starting quarterback Spencer Rattler was 0-6 as a rookie, but his team has won six consecutive season openers. Arizona is trying to make the playoffs for just the second time in the last decade.
Pittsburgh at New York Jets: Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, in possibly his final NFL season, faces his former team. In his last four season openers, Rodgers has combined for one touchdown pass and four interceptions.
New York Giants at Washington: The Commanders, under breakout star quarterback Jayden Daniels, is trying to make the playoffs in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1990-92. New York, which threw a league-low 15 touchdown passes last season, brings in new starter Russell Wilson.
Carolina at Jacksonville: Watch how many snaps second overall draft pick Travis Hunter receives on both offense and defense, and whether Panthers quarterback and former No. 1 overall pick Bryce Young can begin this season like he finished the last — on a hot streak.
Tennessee at Denver: Putting its faith in a first-year quarterback Bo Nix paid off for Denver last season. Will it be the same for the Titans and No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward?
San Francisco at Seattle: Will 49ers back Christian McCaffrey be healthy enough to play? Against what is projected to be one of the league’s best defenses, the 49ers’ new $265 million man, Brock Purdy, will need help.
Detroit at Green Bay: After losing both coordinators to new jobs last season, can the Lions maintain their bruising style? And how impactful will new Packers pass rusher Micah Parsons be in his debut since a trade from Dallas?
Houston at Los Angeles Rams: If the Texans, who are breaking in four new starters on the offensive line, can protect quarterback C.J. Stroud, the Texans could be dangerous. Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford is trying to stay untouched, too, after dealing with a back injury all summer.
Minnesota at Chicago (Monday): Bears fans are on edge about how quarterback Caleb Williams will play in his second season, but his first under new coach Ben Johnson. The same could be said about how Vikings fans feel as J.J. McCarthy, their own quarterback from the 2024 draft class, takes over.
