The worst Pro Bowlers in NFL history

Earlier this week, it was shockingly announced that Shedeur Sanders would be in the NFL Pro Bowl as a rookie.

Sanders only threw seven touchdowns, ten interceptions and was graded second-worst of the 43 QBs that PFF graded this year with a 44.1 grade.

While this might have been due to countless injuries, such as Patrick Mahomes or Bo Nix and other star quarterbacks like Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson not wanting to interrupt their offseasons to play in a flag football game, it still raised the question of who some of the other worst Pro Bowlers in NFL history are and how they line up to Sanders.

Evan Engram (2020)

As a Giants fan, this was the first one that came to mind.

In 2020, Engram only caught 63 of his 109 targets, racked up 654 yards and only one touchdown, yet was named a Pro Bowler.

His hands were nothing short of terrible that season, as he had eleven recorded drops.

The worst of all of them was in week seven, when the Giants just needed to get one first down to kill off the game and get a 21-16 win over the Eagles.

Daniel Jones threw a perfect ball to a wide-open Engram, but he could not come down with it.

The Giants lost that game 22-21, and if the result had been reversed, they would have made the playoffs.

Mike Boryla (1975)

Boryla prevented Sanders from holding the record of the worst TD to INT ratio in a Pro Bowl season, as he threw 6 TD and 12 INT in 1975.

The Eagles only won four games that year, with Boryla getting benched after his fifth outing.

Similar to Sanders, he was invited because better QBs were either injured or opted out.

How so many people were unavailable for a QB who was benched for throwing 12 interceptions in five games to make it, I am not sure, but his name went down in history for this.

Funnily enough, he led two crucial touchdown drives in the fourth quarter of the Pro Bowl to end up winning the game.

John Stallworth (1983)

In the 1983 season, we find another strange Pro Bowler.

John Stallworth was a wide receiver for the Steelers, and in his Pro Bowl season, he only caught eight passes for 100 yards and no touchdowns.

For reference, Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s averages this year were seven catches per game and around 105 yards per game, which is what Stallworth did over the full season.

He had other strong seasons, such as his 1979 campaign, where he had 1183 yards and 8 touchdowns, so maybe his reputation was what got him in.

Tyler Huntley (2022)

A similar situation to Boryla and Sanders was Tyler Huntley in 2022.

He only started four games for Baltimore that season, although he did nearly win a playoff game against the Bengals.

In his four games, he threw three interceptions to only two touchdowns.

Once again, this was due to players being out with injury or not wanting to go, but it was still strange to see a backup quarterback in the Pro Bowl.

Frank Clark (2021)

The last name on this list is Frank Clark.

While he had some elite seasons in Kansas City, 2021 was not one of them.

He recorded only 3.5 sacks, had a PFF grade of 54.1 and was a very poor run defender.

Similar to Stallworth, his Pro Bowl nod seems more like it was a reward for his track record rather than for his actual on-field play that season.

Edison Pellumbi is a first-year student studying broadcast journalism. To contact him, email him at ejp5889@psu.edu.