On Sunday night, two of the AFC's best teams, each led by one of the NFL's best quarterbacks, will square off as the Baltimore Ravens play host to the Buffalo Bills. Lamar Jackson and Co. are only 1-2 to start the 2024 campaign, but we know what they're capable of when they are right, as they were last week in their destruction of the Dallas Cowboys. Josh Allen and the Bills, meanwhile, look very right to begin the season, as they have blasted out of the gates to a 3-0 start.
Jackson and Allen will always be connected as part of the 2018 draft class, where Allen came off the board at No. 7 overall and Lamar was taken with the No. 32 selection. They took different paths to joining the ranks of the elite quarterbacks in the NFL, with Jackson almost immediately taking the league by storm once he became the starter and Allen having a bit of a slower burn; but once they took that step forward, they have been two of the clearest contenders to Patrick Mahomes' crown as the best quarterback -- and best player -- in football.
The two players will also always be connected because they are, arguably, the two best running quarterbacks in the NFL. Jackson might already be the best overall rushing quarterback in NFL history, while Allen might be the best at his specific style of running. The two players, while both elite in the run game, go about their running in very different ways.
Since they came into the league in 2018, Jackson ranks first in the NFL in carries (910), with Allen sitting second (674). Jackson is also first in rushing yards (5,512), and Allen is second there as well (3,696). Allen is first -- by a mile -- in rushing touchdowns (55), while Jackson is third (30).
But the way they accumulate those carries and yards and touchdowns is very different. Jackson is the league's pre-eminent designed runner. The threat of his speed, combined with his ability to read the defense, makes him an almost indefensible read-option threat. As such, the majority of his rushing attempts and yards come in the designed run game.
Allen gets used in the designed run game, too -- occasionally on read-option plays but also on things like QB power and QB sweep. Jackson gets those calls, too, but they make up a larger portion of Allen's designed runs. And in any event, Allen has a much more even split between designed rushing attempts and scrambles; but because of the nature of his designed run plays, his yards are tipped heavily in favor of scrambling.
(Statistics below via TruMedia)
| Player | Lamar Jackson | Josh Allen |
|---|---|---|
| Designed Rush | 573 | 299 |
| Designed Yards | 3,517 | 1,264 |
| Yds/Des Rush | 6.1 | 4.2 |
| Scrambles | 268 | 293 |
| Scramble Yards | 2,065 | 2,521 |
| Yds/Scramble | 7.7 | 8.6 |
| % Designed Rush | 68.1% | 50.5% |
| % Scrambles | 31.9% | 49.5% |
| % Yds Designed | 63.0% | 33.4% |
| % Yds Scramble | 37.0% | 66.6% |
Then there's the location of their runs. Unsurprisingly given the difference in the two players' respective sizes (Jackson is is listed at 6-2, 205 pounds while Allen is 6-5, 237), Allen is called on to run between the tackles far more often than is Jackson. He also fares far better on those rushing attempts, while Jackson fares far better when called on to run to the edges of the defense.
| Player | Lamar Jackson | Josh Allen |
|---|---|---|
| % Left | 42.7% | 42.1% |
| % Middle | 7.5% | 23.3% |
| % Right | 49.8% | 34.7% |
| Yds/Att Left | 6.5 | 5.0 |
| Yds/Att Middle | 6.4 | 6.8 |
| Yds/Att Right | 6.8 | 5.3 |
| EPA/Rush Left | 0.26 | 0.08 |
| EPA/Rush Middle | -0.02 | 0.33 |
| EPA/Rush Right | 0.33 | 0.28 |
Even all that is before we get to their differences in their actual running styles. So many of Jackson's runs are running back-like. He is a whir of jukes and fakes and spins and changes of direction (or fakes of those things), a jitterbug who is nigh impossible to get ahold of in the open field. He has the straight-line speed to outrun just about any defender, but also the shiftiness to make them miss in the open field and create even more yards than appear to be available to him on the surface.
Allen, by contract, looks like something between a linebacker and a Mack truck when he gets into the open field. He gives his fair share of jukes and shakes as well, but for the most part he is either out-running a defender, or running right through him to get to his spot. Where Jackson is in the Michael Vick style of running quarterback, Allen is more like Cam Newton. He's a human bulldozer that you also can't catch up to even if you try.
On Sunday night, we'll get to see two of the NFL's best defenses, each of which gets tested in a certain way by a certain kind of runner every day in practice, try to stop a distinctly different kind of running quarterback. It's a fascinating contrast in styles, and should be incredibly fun to watch. Buckle in.