With almost all of the New England Patriots pulling out of the Pro Bowl, and the Indianapolis Colts’ players being held out due to their AFC Championship win on Sunday over the New York Jets, the AFC Pro Bowl roster is reshaping with a bunch of scrubs instead of a bunch of stars. To make my point clear, look no further than the replacement quarterbacks.

Quarterback
Voted In – Peyton manning, Tom Brady, Philip Rivers
Playing – Matt Schaub, Vince Young, David Garrard

Nobody could argue that Peyton Manning was having one of his most brilliant seasons of all time. Brady, who led a lopsided, pass heavy offence and was returning from knee surgery in 2009 wasalso deserving of a Pro Bowl nod. Philip Rivers, whose Chargers’ failed to succeed in the playoffs, were one of the hottest teams down the stretch.

While Manning will by vying for his second Super Bowl next weekend, Brady and Rivers have both pulled out due to injury. So who got their spots instead?


Well let’s start with Matt Schaub, whose Texans just missed the playoffs. Schaub was excellent this season with 4,770 yards, 29 touchdowns and 15 interceptions while leading the league in both attempts, yards and completions. There’s no issue here with Schaub deserving of a Pro Bowl mention, even if it came as a replacement player.

My problems are with the other two. David Garrard’s Jaguars were absolutely pathetic this season and at no point in the season was I ever convinced that Garrard was a star. In fact, I haven’t thought that in over two seasons. Garrard ranked 16th in yards, 22nd in touchdowns, 23rd in interceptions and was sacked 42 times this season (4th). Does this sound like a Pro Bowl season to you?

Even worse is the insertion of Vince Young who, while having a heroic season, only played in 10 games this season. While Vince Young turned the season around for the winless Titans after he grabbed the reigns in Week 8, he put up somewhat pedestrian numbers. And again – he only played ten games!

Instead of Garrard and Vince Young, the AFC should have elected to insert Carson Palmer, Chad Henne or Joe Flacco for this year’s Pro Bowl. The Bengals and Ravens, at the very least, had better seasons in terms of numbers and all three had better team records than the piss poor Jaguars and the struggling Titans.

When you look back at David Garrard’s career, and you see those Pro Bowl appearances, you’re going to be scratching your head and asking, “Who was that guy again?” Maybe they just feel bad because he’s going to be replaced by Tim Tebow after the 2010 NFL Draft. Who knows.
Wide Receiver
Voted In – Andre Johnson, Reggie Wayne, Brandon Marshall, Wes Welker
Playing – Johnson, Marshall, Chad Ochocinco, Vincent Jackson
The players that were voted in are absolute no-brainers (unless you’re a B-Marsh hater like Josh McDaniels). Selecting Chad Ochocinco and Vincent Jackson to replace the injured Welker and the Super Bowl contending Wayne are pretty good choices, but they weren’t exactly the first ballot replacements.
Randy Moss elected to join his fellow Patriots in a Pro Bowl boycott for whatever reason, although we all assume it was because the thought of running in a game that had zero meaning probably didn’t appeal to Moss.
So while we get the thrilling Johnson and the exhilarating B-Marsh, we’re also treated to the sixth and seventh guys down on the voting list. Great. Just freaking great. We might as well have thrown Sam Breaston in here just for kicks.
Running Back
Voted In – Chris Johnson, Maurice Jones-Drew, Ray Rice
Playing – ALL
Did anybody actually watch the Jaguars play this year? How the hell did Maurice Jones-Drew squeeze in to the Pro Bowl? Listen, I admire him as much as anybody else does, but I had him in fantasy this year and – let me tell you – he was an absolute dud for the home stretch. He killed me.
While I continue to make a case for why Thomas Jones should get more love, especially when he finished second in the AFC with 1,402 yards and 14 touchdowns, his performance in the second half of the Colts-Jets tilt didn’t exaclty provide “ooohs” and “aaaahs”.
But what about Cedric Benson? Or Ricky Williams? Benson finished 5th in the AFC with 1,251 yards and Ricky was 6th with 1,121 yards. While Jones-Drew led the AFC in touchdowns, almost all of those came in the first half of the season. Benson ate up yards throughout the entire season, when he wasn’t injured, and Ricky stepped up huge to give the Dolphins a late playoff push inspite of the Ronnie Brown injury.
You’re telling me that a player like Vince Young can make it to the Pro Bowl with ten games to his name, and that Benson and Williams can’t with more games and more production? Mojo did absolutely nothing to eventually help his team in to the playoffs. Williams was just as essential to Miami and had to overcome more obstacles with injuries to the backfield starters of Chad Pennington and Brown. Benson’s Bengals made the freaking post season.
This is why this Pro Bowl is an absolute waste of time. Players don’t want to go to Miami. They don’t want to play just a few weeks after the end of the regular season, or just one week after getting bounced from the playoffs with their insides still twisted after gut wrenching defeats.


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