Josh Allen tops AP preseason quarterback rankings ahead of Mahomes

Josh Allen moved past Patrick Mahomes in the Associated Press preseason quarterback survey, taking the No. 1 spot from the Kansas City Chiefs star after Mahomes had held it for three straight years. Allen drew five first-place votes from the eight-writer panel that ranked the league’s top five quarterbacks entering the 2026 season, with first-place votes worth 10 points and second through fifth worth 5, 3, 2 and 1.

The vote reflected both Allen’s production and his place at the center of Buffalo’s expectations. Allen appeared on all eight ballots and collected votes from the first through fourth positions, while finishing ahead of Matthew Stafford, Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow. His 2025 regular season offered the numbers that pushed him there: 3,668 passing yards, 25 touchdown passes, 10 interceptions and a 102.2 passer rating, plus 579 rushing yards and 14 rushing touchdowns. He completed 319 of 460 passes, a 69.3 percent rate, and was sacked 40 times in 17 regular-season games.

The ranking also sharpened the gap between Allen’s individual standing and Buffalo’s unfinished business. The Bills lost their fifth straight AFC East title in 2025, ending a run that made them the first team in NFL history to win five consecutive division titles without reaching a Super Bowl. Buffalo has not played in a Super Bowl since the 1993 season, even while making seven straight playoff appearances. That tension has followed Sean McDermott, who was fired by the Bills on Jan. 19, 2026, after another season that ended short of the championship game, with Brandon Beane promoted to president of football operations.

Allen’s profile has now become a measure of how the league defines quarterback value. The AP vote rewarded regular-season production, but it also landed in the middle of a wider debate over whether postseason credibility still outweighs raw output. A separate ESPN ranking of NFL executives, coaches and scouts also put Allen first, and one general manager called him “the most singularly unstoppable player at the position when you get his A-game.” For Buffalo, that kind of standing keeps the focus on the same question every season: whether Allen’s elite play can finally carry the Bills all the way through January.