Josh Allen Just Beat Patrick Mahomes At The One Thing That Always Eluded Him And NFL Insiders Did It

Josh Allen has spent eight years winning games, collecting records, and doing everything right in the regular season. Yet one stubborn fact always followed him -- Patrick Mahomes was still considered the better quarterback. Not anymore. Heading into the 2026 NFL season, a poll of 104 NFL coaches, general managers, and executives placed Allen at No. 1 in Albert Breer's annual quarterback rankings, ending Mahomes' six-year stranglehold on the top spot. And the margin wasn't close. Allen pulled 49 first-place votes. Mahomes, the three-time Super Bowl champion, fell to No. 4.

Why did Josh Allen rank above Patrick Mahomes in the 2026 QB poll?

The poll, compiled from ballots across all 32 teams -- including 20 head coaches and 21 general managers -- gave Allen 427 points. That's 71 more than second-ranked Matthew Stafford, a gap that signals broad consensus rather than a split vote. The reasons aren't hard to find. Allen has dominated the regular-season rivalry with Mahomes, going 5-1 head-to-head. More tellingly, those who voted for him pointed to what he's becoming, not just what he's done.

"Allen's the most feared player in football because he's grown into a quarterback who affects the defense on every single level -- and this is one of those where NFL coaches and evaluators had little doubt about what he was becoming even when the general public had questions," Breer wrote. One VP of player personnel put it simply: "He's still the most dangerous all around and the offense may be less conservative this year."

That last part matters. A freer Allen, operating in a less conservative system, is not an upgrade anyone around the league is taking lightly before a snap has been played.

What happened to Patrick Mahomes in the 2026 QB rankings?

The Mahomes number that stands out isn't his ranking — it's the ballots. Eighteen NFL teams left him off entirely. For a quarterback who claimed over 90% of first-place votes in 2020, 2022, 2023, and 2024, that's a significant shift in perception. Breer acknowledged the surprise: "I figured he'd fall a little bit, but I didn't anticipate that he'd be left off 18 ballots." Mahomes isn't suddenly a bad quarterback -- he remains one of the best in football. But the league appears to be recalibrating. After three Super Bowl wins and years of almost unanimous reverence, a few consecutive seasons where his supporting cast carried significant weight seem to have changed how front offices are weighing him against a quarterback who is, by all current indicators, playing the best football of his life.

Allen enters 2026 as the MVP betting favorite at +550 on FanDuel and +600 on DraftKings. His closest competition includes Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow. Mahomes sits at +1000 on FanDuel. The gap in perception isn't closing -- it's widening. Allen still hasn't beaten Mahomes in the postseason, going 0-4 in those meetings. But for the first time, that narrative is competing with a louder one: the rest of the NFL now sees something in Josh Allen that goes beyond seasonal numbers. They see the best quarterback in football.