NFL makes bizarre choice to replace Josh Allen in Pro Bowl
from Adam Gretz, with YardBarker.com/www.yardbarker.com
In what might be one of the most bizarre and baffling Pro Bowl inclusions in the history of the game, Baltimore Ravens backup quarterback Tyler Huntley has been selected to go to the 2023 game.
Huntley is going as a replacement for Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen who will instead be participating in a golf Pro-Am.
#Ravens QB Tyler "Snoop" Huntley has been named to the Pro Bowl Games, replacing #Bills QB Josh Allen.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 31, 2023
Yes. Tyler Huntley.
Nothing against him as he is an NFL quarterback and has shown he can win some games when called upon, but it does not really do anything to boost the reputation of the Pro Bowl as anything more than a joke that has probably overstayed its welcome in the NFL landscape.
Some things to keep in mind as you wrap your brain around the idea of Huntley as a Pro Bowl quarterback.
He played in six games this season, starting only four of them, and finished with a 2-2 record. He threw for only 658 yards and had more interceptions (three) than touchdown passes (two). His four starts and 112 pass attempts are the fewest for any Pro Bowl quarterback since the AFL-NFL merger (via Pro-Football-Reference).
The NFL is obviously in a tough spot when it comes to filling out these rosters because a lot of players just do not want to be bothered with going. The game had become such a non-competitive joke that they scrapped the idea of playing an actual football game this year and replaced it with 7-on-7 flag football games.
A lot of the top quarterbacks in the AFC are unavailable. Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes is playing in the Super Bowl, so he won’t be there and was already replaced by Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence.
Tua Tagovailoa was reportedly the top vote-getting alternate, but he is unavailable because he remains in the NFL’s concussion protocol. Justin Herbert is also unable to play after undergoing surgery.
So the options were definitely limited as a replacement for Allen.
But Huntley is just such a bizarre choice even with all of that taken into account. Anybody from Mac Jones to Kenny Pickett would have been a more sensible pick given that they actually played close to a full season’s worth of games.
Or, since you are not really playing a real football game where there is an increased risk of injury, you could probably just leave that spot empty and let Burrow and Lawrence play all the snaps.