The NFL’s ranking season feels like a recurring nightmare for Buffalo. Remember when Bruce Smith racked up 200 sacks but critics whispered “system player”? History’s shadow looms long over Orchard Park. This time, it’s Josh Allen—fresh off an MVP campaign—getting the ‘yeah, but…’ treatment.

CBS Sports’ Pete Prisco dropped his Top 100, slotting Allen at #4 behind Patrick Mahomes, Myles Garrett, and running back Saquon Barkley. Prisco’s rationale? “Mahomes would still be the first player picked in any open draft.” Fair. But slotting Allen behind two non-QBs after a 40-touchdown masterclass? Bills Mafia’s torches are already lit.

Allen’s response? A shrug wrapped in Wyoming grit. Weeks earlier, he’d already dismissed the MVP trophy itself. “It is such a great honor… But at the same time, I still didn’t win a Super Bowl. Didn’t win a ring, and that is the only goal,” he told Sports Illustrated. For Allen, legacy isn’t etched in individual hardware—it’s Lombardi or bust. His tone echoed MJ in The Last Dance: “Rings change everything.”

Let’s autopsy Allen’s 2024:

• 3,731 pass yds | 28 pass TDs | 12 rush TDs (NFL-record 5th straight 40+ TD season)
• 77.3 QBR (2nd in NFL)
• First player ever with 3 pass TDs + 3 rush TDs in a game (Week 14 vs. Rams)

Yet Prisco ranked him below Barkley, citing the Eagles’ Super Bowl run. Never mind that Allen dragged Buffalo to the AFC Championship again with a no-name receiver corps. As his OC, Joe Brady, noted on the Centered on Buffalo podcast: “The biggest gift for me was him winning MVP… because I know how hard he works. And don’t get me wrong—he’d much rather be playing a game the next day.”

Allen’s ring chase starts now

Allen’s ethos cuts deeper than stats. Raised on a Firebaugh, CA, cotton farm, he’s built for harvest season—not mid-summer beauty contests. His disdain for MVP hype isn’t ingratitude; it’s obsession. “The one positive… about winning an MVP means your team is in a good position,” he conceded. Translation: Individual awards are mile markers, not destinations.

As training camp looms, Allen’s ‘disrespect’ fuels the Bills’ underdog aura. Prisco’s list? A temporary bulletin-board spark. The real fire burns in January—where Allen’s 4-5 playoff record still gnaws at him. For Buffalo’s QB, Top 100 snubs fade faster than a Josh Allen play-action fake. But hoisting the Lombardi? That’s forever.

• Franchise TD leader (262 total)
• Single-season records: 4,544 yds (2020) | 37 pass TDs (2020) | 69.2% comp (2020)
• First QB ever with 35+ pass/rush TDs in 4 straight years
• 2024 MVP (first Bills QB since Thurman Thomas, 1991)

Buffalo’s front office doubled down on Allen’s ‘weapons program’ this offseason—keeping 15 of 16 offensive starters, adding WRs Josh Palmer and Elijah Moore, and protecting him behind a line that allowed just 14 sacks in 2024. The result? NFL.com tabs them the #1 offense heading into 2025. Allen’s new $330 M deal ($250 M guaranteed) isn’t funding complacency. It’s a war chest for a siege on Kansas City’s (or should we say the Eagles‘?) throne.

‘We’re not in the business of individual recognition,’ Brady insists. For Allen, business won’t be booming until confetti falls in Buffalo blue.