Ravens Tyler Huntley's Inclusion Further Diminishes NFL's Pro Bowl
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The fact that Lamar Jackson isn't going to this year's Pro Bowl says all you need to know about the Baltimore Ravens' weird, woeful season.
The fact that Tyler Huntley says all you need to know about the wonky, downright wrong Pro Bowl. "Games" or otherwise.
Jackson, a two-time Pro Bowl performer, and the NFL's 2019 MVP was on his way to more post-season honors, and his team was headed back to the playoffs. Until Dec. 4, that is, when he suffered a knee injury early in a win over the Denver Broncos that pushed Baltimore to 8-4. He never played another snap.
Enter Huntley, the most unlikely - undeserving? - Pro Bowl quarterback in recent history.
Starting in place of Jackson, Huntley went 2-2 with two touchdowns and three interceptions. Of course, his "signature" play was a season-ending disaster - when he attempted to sneak the ball over the goal line late in a tie game in Cincinnati but instead fumbled and watched as Bengals' lineman Sam Hubbard return it 98 yards for a touchdown in the 24-17 Wild Card loss.
Despite an underwhelming regular-season performance punctuated by the playoff gaffe, Huntley was voted as the AFC's fourth alternate at quarterback. Now, he's somehow headed to Las Vegas for the rebooted Pro Bowl Games.
How lame is this event? Huntley is technically replacing the Buffalo Bills' Josh Allen, who is skipping it to play golf in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
The Pro Bowl has been reorganized for 2023 as the “Pro Bowl Games,” a multi-discipline event overseen by Peyton and Eli Manning’s Omaha Productions company. The competition will culminate in a flag football game, contested between the AFC and NFC as is tradition.
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