Stephen A. Smith First Take Lamar Jackson MVP Screen grab: First Take
ESPNNFLBy Ben Axelrod on

Lamar Jackson won his second career NFL MVP award on Thursday. But while that honor puts the Baltimore Ravens quarterback in rarefied air, a lot of the conversation regarding the distinction focused on Jackson missing out on becoming the only two-time unanimous MVP in league history by the slimmest of margins possible.

As revealed by The Associated Press’ Rob Maaddi, Jackson received 49 of a possible 50 first-place votes. The only person to not vote for the Louisville product? FTN Fantasy’s Aaron Schatz, who gave Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen his first-place vote, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott his second-place vote and Jackson his third-place vote, with Brock Purdy and Patrick Mahomes rounding out his ballot.

As was the case in 2013 when Gary Washburn’s (and not Dan Le Batard’s) vote for Carmelo Anthony cost LeBron James a unanimous MVP award, many were quick to criticize Schatz for going against the grain. That included ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, who made a point to call out the lone MVP voter to not give Jackson a first-place vote on Friday’s episode of First Take.

“People talk about how sportswriters shouldn’t be voting. That was a stupid homer vote by that individual, probably scared to go back in the locker room if he had voted against Josh Allen,” Smith said. “That compromises everything. You have to be objective when you have a vote. And that writer — I don’t know who the hell it was — but that’s an embarrassment.”

But while bias among award voters is certainly a valid concern, it also isn’t a criticism that applies here.

Schatz isn’t a Bills beat writer who has to worry about facing Allen on a daily basis; he’s an analytics-focused writer with no known ties to Buffalo. Schatz didn’t hide from his selection either, publishing his full ballot with thorough explanations for each vote.

“My All-Pro article was primarily a long discussion of why I had Josh Allen and Dak Prescott over Lamar Jackson on my All-Pro ballot, so it also serves as a discussion of why I voted for Allen as my MVP this season,” Schatz wrote.

In the explanation of his All-Pro ballot, Schatz summed up his vote for Allen over Jackson by stating, “I trusted my numbers and my gut over going with the crowd just to avoid controversy.”

While you can agree or disagree with Schatz’s stance — a lot of his rationale, by his own admission, is based on his site’s advanced analytics — there doesn’t seem to be any ulterior motive in his vote, as Smith inferred. It’s also not like he was totally dismissive of Jackson’s impressive season either, as he voted him third in what was a fairly competitive MVP field.

To that end, Smith’s criticism of the lone dissenting vote might say more about the state of MVP voting than it does Schatz.

While Jackson’s season was spectacular and certainly MVP-worthy, was it really a unanimous MVP-caliber season? After all, Purdy was the presumptive favorite to win the award until the Ravens beat the San Francisco 49ers in Week 16.

Outside of Jackson and Allen, I was surprised there weren’t any first-place votes for Christian McCaffrey or Prescott either. As betting odds become more prominent, voters seem to be more in tune with who’s going to win the award and thus, appear less likely to be willing to go against the grain in fear of being called out.

That, however, is exactly what Schatz did, although there’s no way he could have known that he would be the only person who wouldn’t vote Jackson first. Ironically, despite Smith’s criticism, one could argue that his vote for Allen was actually the most objective in this year’s voting.

[FTN Fantasy]

About Ben Axelrod

Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.

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