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The early favorite for the MVP, Josh Allen has garnered plenty of love from #BillsMafia, downtown Buffalo and even LeBron James. On Wednesday, he got admiration from the NFL, which named him its Week 3 AFC Offensive Player of the Week. The Monday Night Football opening act, Allen’s efforts preceded a historic Jayden Daniels encore to secure NFC weekly honors, the league announced Wednesday.

In a 47-10 win over Jacksonville, Allen guided the Bills to touchdowns on each of their five first-half offensive possessions. No other NFL player has more weekly awards than Allen (13) since the Bills selected him seventh overall in the 2018 draft.

Allen has 229 career combined passing and rushing touchdowns. This week at Baltimore on Sunday Night Football (8:20 p.m. ET, NBC), he can surpass Patrick Mahomes (231) for the most in NFL history through a player’s first seven seasons. Allen has already topped Hall of Famers Dan Marino (225) and Peyton Manning (225).

Daniels exploded onto the national scene by leading Washington to a 38-33 victory at Cincinnati, breaking Dak Prescott’s single-game rookie NFL record with a 91.3-percent completion percentage (21 of 23 attempts). Daniels also threw his first NFL touchdown and put the game out of reach with a pinpoint, 27-yard touchdown pass to Terry McLaurin in the fourth quarter, and added a rushing touchdown.

Just the third quarterback in Washington history to win Offensive Player of the Week, Daniels joined Robert Griffin III (twice in 2012) and Gus Frerotte (1994).

Now the third rookie quarterback to earn a weekly honor over the NFL’s past five seasons, Daniels has led Washington (2-1) to become the first NFL team this century to score on every possession over consecutive games, excluding kneeldowns. What’s more, the Commanders are the first team in the Super Bowl era (since 1966) to complete back-to-back games without a punt or turnover.

By Zak Gilbert

Since his freshman year at the University of Colorado, Zak has worked 30 years in sports, including 18 NFL seasons. He's spent time with four NFL teams, serving as head of communications for both the Raiders and Browns. A veteran of nine Super Bowls, he most recently worked six seasons in the NFL's New York league office.

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