Fun fact. You only need to throw two touchdowns to get into the Pro Bowl now. Don’t believe us? Ask the NFL, which just selected Baltimore Ravens backup QB Tyler Huntley as a Pro Bowl alternate.
This year obviously Jalen Hurts and Patrick Mahomes are ineligible to play in the Pro Bowl due to making the Super Bowl, but there are several other players who are hurt that require an alternate to play.
Josh Allen Missing Pro Bowl
Bills QB Josh Allen was set to be one of the quarterbacks to play in the Pro Bowl, but interestingly enough he decided to pass up on playing in the Pro Bowl to play in a Golf Tournament at Pebble Beach according to Fox News. He’s also dealing with an elbow injury, so guess who’s going to end up replacing Josh Allen? You guessed it, Tyler Huntley.
Tyler Huntley Replaces Josh Allen In Pro Bowl
This is one of the most surprising and confusing Pro Bowl selections ever, especially because he’s not even the best QB on his own team. That title belongs to potential franchise tag Lamar Jackson.
Not to mention Huntley only has five touchdown passes in his career, only two of them coming from this season. On top of that extremely minuscule amount of touchdowns this season, he has three interceptions this season.
According to ESPN, that is by far the smallest amount of touchdown passes made by a quarterback who is in the Pro Bowl. This stat has been tracked since 1970, and the next-smallest amount of touchdowns for a Pro Bowl QB is six by Mike Boryla in 1975 for the Eagles.
He also is the first QB since Vince Young in 2009 to make a Pro Bowl in the same year he threw more interceptions than touchdowns.
Tyler Huntley filled in for an injured Lamar Jackson frequently throughout the season, and in six games he passed for 658 yards, ranking him 48th in the NFL in passing yards. To put that ranking into perspective, there are 32 NFL teams, and besides Lamar, who has more yards than him as well but is dealing with injuries, there are 46 other QBs with more passing yards than Huntley.
The Super Bowl is a few days away. The Eagles and Chiefs will be facing off on Feb. 12, but we’re also getting a new and “improved” Pro Bowl. Gone are the days when the game meant something to the players. In fact, now it’s a full-fledged flag football game. We’re never going to see something like Sean Taylor smack a punter into oblivion anymore. But for safety reasons, it’s for the better.
NFL Pro Bowl Is Now Flag Football
Along with this annual meeting of the league’s best, we’re going to get the normal alternates, and substitutions for different players who either made it to the big game and cannot participate in the Pro Bowl, or players who are injured and aren’t playing in the Pro Bowl.
Huntley has undoubtedly benefited from lack of availability by more deserving signal-callers — ones with double digit TD passes at least.
But in terms of the QBs who were selected before Huntley, Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen, Tua Tagovoiloa, Justin Herbert, and the guy he replaced, Lamar Jackson, were all alternatives ahead of him for a Pro Bowl spot. As previously stated, Mahomes is in the Super Bowl and cannot participate, and everyone else is dealing with an injury, besides Burrow who is also not participating in the Pro Bowl game.
So Huntley’s up.
This will be a cool story to tell his kids and friends and family at some point that he got to play in a game celebrating the elite players of the NFL. Even though it was on a technicality.
Other players such as Trevor Lawrence, who is much more deserving of a Pro Bowl nod over Huntley will be playing as well. Another questionable Pro Bowl player is Derek Carr, who was not only benched by the Raiders but doesn’t plan on ever playing in a Raiders uniform again.
It’s like the NFL took open applications to play QB in the Pro Bowl
The fact that Josh Allen would rather go golfing than play in the Pro Bowl shows how much the Pro Bowl has deteriorated from what it used to be.
Dont expect anything that resembles an actual NFL game. More like high school 7 v 7 with a skills competition to supply fans with some added lighthearted entertainment.
