Pro Bowl Picks: Bills' Jordan Poyer Snubbed Again
Susan Lucci has nothing on Jordan Poyer — except the benefit of a much longer career in her field that finally netted the All My Children star the emmy award she deserved for so long on her 19th nomination at age 54.
Poyer, the outstanding long-time Buffalo Bills' safety, won't have that kind of opportunity. At 30, he's already closer to the end of his playing career than the beginning.
Sadly for him and his hundreds of thousands of supporters, he's not any closer to his first Pro-Bowl berth since becoming a full-time player and ascending to the NFL's elite class of safeties in 2017.
Poyer on Wednesday night was left off the initial AFC roster for the 2022 Pro Bowl, though he could still end up in the game as a third alternate.
Left tackle Dion Dawkins and wide receiver Stefon Diggs were the only Bills to make the team. Quarterback Josh Allen and linebacker Tremaine Edmunds are first alternates; tight end Dawson Knox and linebacker Tyler Matakevich (special teams) second alternates, Poyer and long snapper Reid Ferguson third alternates, safety Micah Hyde a fourth alternate and center Mitch Morse and kicker Tyler Bass fifth alternates.
Allen might be considered their most noteworthy snub, though he's been there before. And Bass being a fifth alternate is comically tragic. But both are players whose best years are ahead of them and likely will make mutiple Pro Bowls down the road
Third alternate for Poyer is downright insulting.
Yet third alternate was the best that could be afforded one of the finest safeties for five years running and arguably the most important component in the league's stingiest defense.
Poyer in 76 games with the Bills has 509 tackles (26 for losses), 18 interceptions, 36 passes defended, six forced fumbles, six fumble recoveries and 8.0 sacks
But his worth can't be measured just by numbers. His fit in their system and his leadership figure into the equation as well, though those intangibles can't be properly quantified.
Ironically, what has been working against him all these years is fellow safety and supporter Hyde. Poyer and Hyde, who earned a berth in the 2017 season, have fit together so well for so long that each are deprived of individual credit at times.
Their exceptional teamwork holds them back when it comes to individual recognition. So what has been Poyer's blessing is ostensibly also his curse.
To that end, Hyde started an unofficial campaign in the offseason to get his friend elected.
"To this day, I still don't feel like he gets the recognition that he deserves," Hyde told Ashley Holder of Channel 2 WGRZ. "I'm his No. 1 fan. That's my boy. You know, to see him go out there and play the way he has played since we got here, it has been remarkable.
"I don't know how many teams in the league have a pair of safeties that have been together for more than three years, and that's why you can come out with all the rankings, top safety duos, all of that. At the end of the day, if I'm a coach or I'm a GM, I want to see consistency in between me and Po that's there."
The campaign has been unsuccessful, and Poyer sadly is running out of time.
Nick Fierro is the publisher of Bills Central. Check out the latest Bills news at www.si.com/nfl/bills and follow Fierro on Twitter at @NickFierro. Email to Nicky300@aol.com.
