As one of the most unique regular seasons in NFL history comes to a close, the MVP race heading into the playoffs has become all but normal.

In most seasons, one MVP candidate raises above the ranks of the others, dominating the narrative all season long while leading their team to a successful record en route to earning one of the most prestigious trophies in football.

This season, there are three main contenders for the award: Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, and Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen.

Sportsbooks all around the country have adjusted their MVP odds based on the rise of that third candidate, as per Oddshark, Allen has passed the reigning Super Bowl MVP and has the second-best odds to be named MVP.

It's obvious as to why Rodgers and Mahomes were the frontrunners to be named Most Valuable Player for the majority of the season: they each had dominant seasons and led their teams to first-round byes, plus it helps that they are each household names throughout the sport.

As great as Rodgers and Mahomes were this season, the dominant narrative in the 2020 NFL season, outside of how the league dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic, was the rise of the Buffalo Bills.

Led by Josh Allen, the Bills elevated themselves as more than just a squad that can make the playoffs: they won the AFC East for the first time in 25 years, and have established themselves as legitimate Super Bowl contenders.

The largest reason for that jump in success has been the leap that Josh Allen has taken.

Josh Allen is making huge strides

The reputation of Josh Allen going into the draft was that he was a gunslinger: he could throw a hell of a deep ball, but his accuracy at the NFL level was questioned heading into the 2018 draft.

One of his biggest criticisms was that he would take risky deep shots down field, which could lead to more turnovers with more advanced NFL defenses.

Allen is still taking a lot of deep shots, as he ranked ahead of Mahomes and Rodgers in intended air yards (3rd in the league) and completed air yards (4th in the league).

Despite being one of the most deep-ball friendly quarterbacks in the NFL, Allen completed a higher percentage of passes this season than a slew of future Hall-of-Famers have at the peak of their powers, per Kevin Van Valkenburg of ESPN.

But this year, Allen connected on 69.2% of his passes, the 25th-best single-season in NFL history, on his way to setting a franchise record for passing yards. You know who has never had a season in which he completed at least 69.2% of his passes? Tom Brady. Neither has Peyton Manning.

Allen's improvement has helped Buffalo to rise from a frisky Wild Card squad to a real title contender.

Part of Josh Allen's rise can be attributed to Buffalo's offseason addition of Stefon Diggs, who led the league in receiving yards partially due to Allen throwing him accurate deep balls and give him opportunities in space with his craftiness outside the pocket.

The Bills needed that improvement from him, as thanks to some bad injury luck and general regression, the Bills defense was significantly worse in 2020 than it was in 2019.

They were ranked as a top-5 defense in yards per game, passing yards per game, and points allowed in 2019, but regressed towards becoming an average defense in all of those categories in 2o20.

Thanks to that defensive regression towards the mean, Allen could no longer lead the Bills to success by being a game manager: he had to step up to lead the Bills to success in 2020 and he did just that.

Combine the lack of defensive support with his deep ball success and his increased accuracy, and Josh Allen has a legitimate case to earn the MVP nod over Mahomes and Rodgers.