Fifth-round draft pick and third-string Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders has accomplished something his Hall of Fame father never did: earning a Pro Bowl spot in his rookie season.
The word “earn” here, for some, might be doing some heavy lifting. Sanders is serving as an alternate for the Patriots’ probable MVP quarterback, Drake Maye. The gulf between these two throwers of the football might as well be the Grand Canyon.
And of course, Sanders is a lightning rod for controversy, so the whole thing feels a bit desperate, especially because other AFC quarterbacks like Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, and Justin Herbert are all sitting right there with much better statistics for much better teams.
Maybe the league approached those guys, and a few others, yet somehow landed on Sanders. Or maybe Sanders was their only call. But from where I sit, the best chance a mediocre player has at becoming a Pro Bowler is to just be free that weekend.
The loud talking that ensued was entirely predictable, given the volume of media chatter around Sanders since the draft. You can understand the league’s calculus, then, especially if Sanders was an early call: no one cares about the Pro Bowl, so choosing Sanders immediately heightens engagement from fans and media who largely couldn’t care less about the All-Star flag football game.
Still, the idea that Sanders is the worst Pro Bowl alternate is questionable; he passed for 1,400 yards, seven touchdowns, and ten interceptions. That honor probably belongs to Tyler Huntley’s 2023 campaign, wherein he threw two touchdowns, three interceptions, and started only four games. At least in his case, the Ravens were actually good. The Browns, simply, were not.
The outsized response to Sanders’ selection is a boon for the league, even if it seems like the wrong choice. It not only brings more clicks, but the vitriol, at least in the short term, suggests that the Pro Bowl is a more prestigious designation than anyone actually believes. If it sounds like a sports psyop that Sanders was chosen, it’s because it very well could be.
Of course, the volume will immediately turn down, if only because no one is going to be watching that game. But during the two-week break between the final conference championship games and the Super Bowl, the league will take whatever attention it can get. Made-up controversies be damned.
