This story was first published on January 2, 2025, and has been updated.<\/p>\n
The Pro Bowl\u2019s reputation keeps eroding \u2014 players are openly deriding the event. A Giants offensive lineman took to X to call the Pro Bowl \u201ca joke,\u201d arguing that popularity, not performance, too often determines selections. Former three-time Pro Bowler Shawne Merriman also lamented that the honor used to mean something; although he denied naming anyone specifically, others pointed to the latest alternate pick \u2014 Shedeur Sanders \u2014 as evidence of the problem.<\/p>\n
To be clear: this is not an attack on Sanders himself. He\u2019s a rookie, was sandwiched behind a weak offensive line with limited receiving help, and in many ways handled tough circumstances well. Still, his numbers this season don\u2019t line up with what you\u2019d expect from a Pro Bowl quarterback. Among QBs with at least 75 dropbacks, only two undrafted rookies \u2014 Brady Cook and Max Brosmer \u2014 had worse touchdown-to-interception ratios than Sanders\u2019 7 TDs to 10 INTs. His projected EPA per play ranked only ahead of a handful of low-performing starters.<\/p>\n
Last year\u2019s replacement list was nearly as long as the original roster \u2014 many substitutions were understandable because Super Bowl teams and injured or resting players removed themselves from participation. But the replacement process itself is part of the problem. Not long ago, Russell Wilson and Drake Maye were named as replacements for Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson. Both Wilson and Maye finished the season around 22nd\u201323rd in EPA per dropback, behind names like Aidan O\u2019Connell, Kirk Cousins and Joe Flacco \u2014 and Justin Herbert, who finished top-10, was overlooked for a replacement nod. Wilson\u2019s season, while leading to a playoff spot, included below-average metrics and a 6\u20136 record as a starter, hardly an argument that he was among the conference\u2019s elite.<\/p>\n
This credibility gap isn\u2019t new. In 2012 Jeff Saturday made the Pro Bowl despite not playing for the Packers that season. In 2022 Tyler Huntley \u2014 a backup who started four games and struggled \u2014 ended up on the roster, an outcome partly driven by alternate voting being handled differently (reports indicated alternate votes came only from players). And in 2010 Terrell Suggs admitted he voted in Ryan Fitzpatrick over league MVP Tom Brady. When popularity and politicking drive selections, the honor loses meaning.<\/p>\n
Compare that to the NBA All-Star Game, where, despite debates over specifics, most All-Stars are clearly deserving. The NFL\u2019s problem is deeper because Pro Bowl selections still influence Hall of Fame consideration and player legacies. Mike Sando and other voters have pointed out the contradiction: the Pro Bowl is both often dismissed by players and yet significant in postseason honors.<\/p>\n
That creates a dilemma. Treating original Pro Bowl picks and late alternates as equivalent is unfair to players who genuinely earned the nod, but scrapping the designation entirely feels extreme \u2014 there are already very limited postseason recognitions. Practical fixes do exist: separate \u201cinitial\u201d selections from alternates in official records (as Sando suggested); introduce position-specific awards or tiered All-Pro\/All-NFL teams like the NBA\u2019s multiple All-NBA squads; or add positional honors similar to MLB\u2019s Gold Gloves and Silver Sluggers. Those kinds of changes would give clearer context to a player\u2019s season \u2014 for example, a runner who gains 1,800 scrimmage yards and leads the league in yards per carry deserves recognition that\u2019s commensurate with that performance, not an ambiguous \u201cPro Bowl\u201d label that can be diluted by late, popularity-driven additions.<\/p>\n
While fans watch players participate in non-football activities during Pro Bowl weekend and see many stars skip the festivities, it\u2019s reasonable to expect the league to tighten up how it honors its best performers. The event can be adjusted so the recognition means more to players, voters and future Hall of Fame committees.<\/p>\n
Fan Take: This matters because Pro Bowl nods still shape careers and Hall of Fame cases; when selections look like popularity contests, it cheapens real achievement. Cleaning up the selection and replacement process \u2014 or adding clearer, position-based awards \u2014 would preserve meaningful recognition and give fans a more accurate measure of who truly had outstanding seasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This story was first published on January 2, 2025, and has been updated. The Pro Bowl\u2019s reputation keeps eroding \u2014 players are openly deriding the event. A Giants offensive lineman took to X to call the Pro Bowl \u201ca joke,\u201d arguing that popularity, not performance, too often determines selections. Former three-time Pro Bowler Shawne Merriman […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[859],"tags":[860],"class_list":{"0":"post-39428","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-nfl"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}