NFL
The NFL Pro Bowl Is Officially a Joke After 2 Latest Additions
Tim Crean started writing about sports in 2016 and joined Sportscasting in 2021. He excels with his versatile coverage of the NFL and soccer landscape, as well as his expertise breaking down sports media, which stems from his many years downloading podcasts before they were even cool and countless hours spent listening to Mike & The Mad Dog and The Dan Patrick Show, among other programs. As a longtime self-professed sports junkie who even played DII lacrosse at LeMoyne College in Syracuse, New York, Tim loves reading about all the latest sports news every day and considers it a dream to write about sports professionally. He's a lifelong Buffalo Bills fan from Western New York who mistakenly thought, back in the early '90s, that his team would be in the Super Bowl every year. He started following European soccer — with a Manchester City focus — in the early 2000s after spending far too much time playing FIFA. When he's not enjoying a round of golf or coaching youth soccer and flag football, Tim likes reading the work of Bill Simmons, Tony Kornheiser, Chuck Klosterman, and Tom Wolfe.
Get to know Tim Crean betterPublished01 Feb 2023
The NFL Pro Bowl has been the object of derision for NFL fans, media, and even players for years. Having a Pro Bowl game in Hawaii led to the league having to fill in the roster with lesser players as Super Bowl-bound Pro Bowlers, injured players, and veterans often begged out. Moving the postseason NFL All-Star game to Las Vegas and making it flag football instead of the real deal was supposed to change that. However, in 2023, players have become so uninterested in this event, the league has to stretch the definition of a Pro Bowl player so far, it has now lost all meaning. That’s why the 2023 Pro Bowl has officially become a joke with the additions of two quarterbacks, the Baltimore Ravens’ Tyler Huntley and the Las Vegas Raiders’ Derek Carr.
Tyler Huntley and Derek Carr in the NFL Pro Bowl is a joke
The initial NFL Pro Bowl selections at quarterback included the best signal-callers of the 2022 season. In the AFC, Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, and Josh Allen made the team. On the NFC side, it was Jalen Hurts, Geno Smith, and Kirk Cousins.
Nothing wrong with that.
However, Mahomes and Hurts are in the Super Bowl, Allen nursed an injured elbow for half the year, and Burrow has an “excused absence” after losing in the AFC Championship. That leaves Smith and Cousins as the only two truly elected QBs in Las Vegas on Sunday.
To replace two of the four missing signal-callers, the NFL tapped Jacksonville Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence and Jared Goff of the Detroit Lions. They are both fine choices who had excellent seasons.
Now eight QBs in, the NFL made some truly astonishing choices for the ninth and tenth spots.
Raiders QB Derek Carr led his stacked team to a 6-11 record on the season. Then the team benched him for the final two games of the season as his team searched for a trade partner. At least the longtime Raiders had a sense of humor about getting a Pro Bowl nod in the first season he didn’t throw for over 4,000 yards since 2017.
“Well… maybe this invitation got lost in the mail from past seasons but I’m going back to pro bowl #4,” Carr tweeted. “See you soon Vegas!”
The even more head-scratching choice, though, was Ravens QB Tyler Huntley. Lamar Jackson’s backup appeared in six games this season, started four, produced a 2-2 record as a starter (2-3 if you count the playoffs), and was 75-of-112 for 658 passing yards with two touchdowns and three interceptions.
Maybe the league quietly reached out to Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Dak Prescott, Daniel Jones, Justin Herbert, and Kenny Pickett, and they all said no. But even if that was the case, the league should have gone with two AFC 2023 Pro Bowl QBs for their little flag football game instead of putting in Huntley and becoming a complete joke.
