In a parallel universe, Josh Allen is an MVP.
In a parallel universe, Josh Allen is a Super Bowl winner and the consensus best quarterback in football.
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But in this universe, the Patrick Mahomes universe, 'Showtime' is still very much the A-side to Allen's B-side, and until the Buffalo Bills signal caller beats the three-time Super Bowl winner in a game that truly matters, it will remain that way for the foreseeable future.
Allen is unlucky that he finds himself in an era when the Kansas City Chiefs, led by the genius mind of Andy Reid and two all-time greats in Mahomes and Travis Kelce, are the dominant force in the NFL.
It's a problem various stars have encountered in other sports, too -- chiefly, the NBA.
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Michael Jordan's dynastic Chicago Bulls won six NBA championships across two separate three-peats during the 1990s, ensuring All-Stars like Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone, John Stockton, and Charles Barkley never got to touch the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy.
In many ways, Allen is like Barkley, in that without Mahomes or Jordan existing, both would be serial winners with countless more team and individual accolades to boast about.
In 1993, Sir Charles was a year removed from being the leading scorer on the 1992 Olympics Dream Team and fresh off a blockbuster trade to the Phoenix Suns.
For his efforts that season, Barkley won the league's Most Valuable Player Award -- something Allen is yet to do -- and had a legitimate claim to being the best in The Association.
Barkley thought it, too, saying, "I think I'm better than Michael Jordan," before his Suns met MJ's Bulls in that year's Finals.
But after a Game 2 defeat, Barkley performed a swift U-turn and readily admitted 'His Airness' was better in almost every way.
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"I think Michael Jordan is better than me... I never felt this way before," The Round Mound of Rebound said.
Chicago won the '93 Finals in six games and Barkley never reached the promised land again.
He's undoubtedly one of the greatest players to never win an NBA title.
Allen is in danger of wearing that same unenviable tag once his career is over, but unlike Barkley, he is still very much in his prime with plenty of time to course correct a path that's trending towards being the NFL's next, great 'nearly man'.
The Buffalo quarterback has come close to winning an MVP before.
He finished second in 2020 behind four-time winner Aaron Rodgers and came third in 2022, behind second-place Jalen Hurts and eventual winner Mahomes.
He was a finalist once again last year, losing out to Ravens dual-threat field general Lamar Jackson.
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Allen has proven himself to be a perennial MVP candidate and, after a string of stellar performances to start this season, is the favorite to win the award for the first time this year.
It's still early days, but he was virtually unstoppable against the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 3, completing 23-of-30 passes for 263 yards and four touchdowns and a 142.1 passer rating in a 47-10 blowout win.
The 28-year-old has nine touchdowns on the season and still hasn't thrown an interception through the first three weeks for the first time in his career.
His only turnover was a fumble on the opening drive of the season against the Arizona Cardinals.
Despite preseason concerns, the 3-0 Bills have barely missed the production of the recently departed Stefon Diggs and Gabe Davis, and that is mostly down to Allen.
The man at the top of the NFL with a 92.6 QBR has lead his offense majestically to start the season and elevated his entire group of pass catchers to more than the sum of its parts.
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MVPs are undoubtedly nice, and if Allen were to win one this season it would be a serious feather in his cap.
But the real greats of the game are judged on Super Bowls and Super Bowls alone, and Allen still has a way to go to get that monkey off his back.
A good starting point would be to finally beat Mahomes in the playoffs.
To be the best you have to beat the best, and Allen is 0-3 against Mahomes in the postseason.
The latest nadir came when the Chiefs marched into Highmark Stadium in last season's divisional round and came away with a 27-24 victory en route to yet another Super Bowl crown.
Mahomes is 4-3 against Allen in his career, and although the Bills man has a 3-1 edge over Mahomes in the regular season, it's the postseason that really counts.
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Beating Mahomes in crunch time is no easy feat, as countless other teams have found during his six years as an NFL starter.
The 28-year-old has only lost three times during the postseason, two of which came against Tom Brady.
The Chiefs star's only other playoff loss came in the 2022 AFC title game when he lost 27-24 to Joe Burrow's Cincinnati Bengals.
Burrow and Brady have shown that Mahomes can be beaten in a win-or-go-home shootout.
Solving the Mahomes-Chiefs postseason puzzle and preventing the Super Bowl three-peat will take a Herculean effort -- one that Allen and the Bills are certainly capable of pulling off.
If Allen is to achieve what Barkley couldn't -- win a world championship -- he will likely have to pull off what Barkley also couldn't -- beat the best player in the world at the peak of his powers.
