Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen are comfortable toting the NFL Most Valuable Player award, and more determined than ever to claim another coveted piece of hardware.
“Anytime Lamar is on the team, you know you have a chance to hoist the Lombardi,” Ravens linebacker Roquan Smith said on Wednesday as Baltimore prepares to travel to Buffalo to tackle reigning MVP Allen and the Bills on Sunday night.
The quarterbacks who’ve claimed the last two MVP awards also fight for the AFC’s spot in the Super Bowl. Allen knocked Jackson, league MVP in 2019 and 2023, and the Ravens out of the playoffs in a classic 27-25 duel in the AFC divisional playoffs in January, avenging a 35-10 regular-season loss before being bounced by the three-time reigning conference champion Chiefs.
With the league’s No. 1 offense (424.9 yards per game) last season — and the first in NFL history to post at least 4,000 passing yards and 3,000 rushing yards in a single season — there is likely margin for error as the Ravens reveal their new-look defense in primetime Sunday night.
Baltimore plotted a defensive revival in its 2025 reboot. On Sunday night, Allen and the Bills present an atypical test. Much like Jackson, Allen is a running threat, too. He leads the NFL with 206 total touchdowns since entering the league in 2017, 61 more than Jackson.
“To win, you’ve got to be at your best,” Allen said of the mutual respect for Jackson. “When you’re going up against another quarterback that’s great, talk about Lamar, he’s one of the best players to touch the grass. You can’t give him more opportunities than he needs. You can’t give him short fields. He’ll take advantage of those.”
Jackson had five touchdowns and 120 rushing yards in two games against the Bills last season.
And health is a huge question mark in Buffalo, particularly in the secondary.
The likely starting cornerback tandem of Christian Benford and Tre’Davious White (leg) had gone more than two weeks without practicing when the Bills reported for the first game week of 2025 on Wednesday. Rookie Maxwell Hairston Jr. (knee) was injured during training camp and later placed on IR.
Among newcomers, former Chargers defensive end Joey Bosa signed and the Bills drafted six defensive players, selecting Hairston in the first round and defensive tackle T.J. Sanders in the second. Bosa, a five-time Pro Bowl selection with the Chargers, was signed to spice up the Bills’ pass rush.
The Ravens invested in defensive upgrades, too. Baltimore picked up Packers’ castoff cornerback Jaire Alexander and drafted Georgia safety Malaki Starks in the first round.
“They have a really good front — best run-stopping front in the league,” Allen said. “On the back end they’ve invested a lot of first-round picks. They’ve got some studs.”
Smith aligns at the heart of what was the No. 1 run defense in 2024 and discussing the beefed up secondary brought a smile to his face. Smith believes Baltimore can be in the driver’s seat in every game this season if it collectively avoids self-inflicted wounds. When Allen is on the other side of the line of scrimmage, that can be easier said than done.
“Going up against him, it starts with stopping the run, truth be told,” Smith said. “Stopping James Cook, making them one-dimensional and making it a dropback game.”
Neither team strained to put points on the board last season, averaging more than 30 points per game.
Cook and Ravens running back Derrick Henry tied for the NFL lead with 16 rushing touchdowns — along with Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs — and signed contract extensions to remain linchpins going forward.
Sunday night is the first shot at retribution for Ravens tight end Mark Andrews, who came out of the two-point loss at Buffalo in January as the goat, even blamed for the defeat in some circles. Andrews dropped a pass with 1:33 remaining that would have tied the game late in the fourth quarter and described his emotional state as “gutted” one week after the fact.
“I’m a pro. This is what I do, this is what I love to do,” Andrews said, noting he keeps a small circle intentionally and is ignoring outside chatter about the playoff game.
Fellow tight end Isaiah Likely has been out with a foot injury since July 29 and is expected to miss Sunday’s game.
Sunday night is the final home opener at Buffalo’s current stadium, Highmark Stadium, which opened in 1973 and was previously known as Rich Stadium and Ralph Wilson Stadium.
“I think the fans are going to feel that and give us the juice that we need,” Allen said.
–Field Level Media
