On Sunday night, two of the best teams of the AFC, each led by one of the NFLs best quarterbacks, will face 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’re right, as they were last week in their destruction of the Dallas Cowboys. Josh Allen and the Bills, meanwhile, watch very right to start the season, as they burst out of the gates to a 3-0 start.
Jackson and Allen will always be linked 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 pick. They took different paths to join the ranks of the elite quarterbacks in the NFLwith Jackson almost immediately taking the league by storm after he became the starter and Allen having a bit of a slower burn; but once they took that step forward, they were 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 backs in the NFL. Jackson may 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 running game, go about their running in very different ways.
Since they came into the league in 2018, Jackson is 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 pile up those carries and yards and touchdowns is very different. Jackson is the league’s preeminent designed runner. The threat of his speed, combined with his ability to read the defense, makes him an almost undefendable read-option threat. As such, the majority of his rushing attempts and yards come in the designed run game.
Allen is also used in the designed run game — sometimes on read-option plays but also on things like QB power and QB swing. Jackson gets those calls, too, but they make up a larger portion of Allen’s designed runs. And anyway, Allen has a much more even split between designed rushing attempts and scrambles; but due to the nature of his designed running plays, his yards are tipped heavily in favor of scrambling.
(Stats below via TruMedia)
| Designed by Rush | 573 | 299 |
| Yards Drawn | 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 |
| % Drawn Rush | 68.1% | 50.5% |
| % Scrambles | 31.9% | 49.5% |
| % Yds Drawn | 63.0% | 33.4% |
| % Yds Scramble | 37.0% | 66.6% |
Next is the location of their runs. Unsurprisingly given the difference in the two players’ respective sizes (Jackson is listed at 6-2, 205 pounds while Allen is 6-5, 237), Allen is called upon to run between the tackles far more often than Jackson is. He also does much better on those rushing attempts, while Jackson does much better when called upon to run to the edges of the defense.
| % To the left | 42.7% | 42.1% |
| % Middle | 7.5% | 23.3% |
| % That’s right | 49.8% | 34.7% |
| Yds/Left | 6.5 | 5.0 |
| Yds/Att Middle | 6.4 | 6.8 |
| Yds/Att Correct | 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 backs. He is a noise of jukes and fakes and spins and changes of direction (or fakes of those things), an upset that is almost impossible to get in the open field. He has the straight-line speed to outrun almost any defender, but also the movement to make them miss in the open field and create even more yards than appears to be available to him on the surface.
Allen, by contract, looks like something between a linebacker and a Mack truck when he enters the open field. He gives his fair share of jukes and shakes as well, but for the most part he either outruns a defender, or runs 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 can’t reach either if you try.
On Sunday night, we’ll see two of the NFL’s best defenses, each of which is tested in a certain way by a certain type of runner every day in practice, try to stop a distinctly different running quarterback. It’s a fascinating contrast in styles, and should be incredibly fun to watch. Buckle in.
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