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3 Eagles in Pro Bowl + 3 Alternates
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Three Philadelphia Eagles were named to the Pro Bowl Tuesday: DE Fletcher Cox (finally!), Darren Sproles (as a punt returner), and in a surprise, LT Jason Peters.
Naming Peters is kind of a habit at this point. He has been selected every year since 2008, except for 2012 when he didn’t play at all due to a ruptured achilles tendon. 2015 has not been his strongest year, but he earned the admiration of his fellow players by holding together a very shaky offensive line through force of will, despite his age (34 in a month) and a series of painful injuries.
The number of Pro Bowlers on the Eagles (three) matches the total on Green Bay and Pittsburgh. Undefeated Carolina leads the league with 10, while the other elite teams — New England, Seattle and Arizona — have seven each.
Three Eagles were named as alternates, according to Bleacher Report: center Jason Kelce, safety Malcolm Jenkins, and special teamer Chris Maragos. The team has not confirmed this as of late Tuesday night. Punter Donnie Jones and OLB Connor Barwin were flat out snubbed.
Jeff Skversky of ABC-6 Sports tweeted an interesting list of Eagles Chip Kelly has cut.
The thing is, Shady is the only one on that list selected this year, which kind of undercuts Skversky’s point. (And he was a somewhat controversial pick himself, as the league’s 9th best running back by yardage.) In general, the players Chip got rid of made sense; Todd Herremans, Cary Williams and Bradley Fletcher are all out of the league. It’s the players he chose to replace them that have been a problem.
Meanwhile, one of the most discussed snubs was former Eagle Kurt Coleman, who is having a miracle year with seven interceptions and a touchdown already in 2015. (He had a total of 10 interceptions in his first five NFL years, none of them in 2013 when he played for Chip.) Here’s an argument no one could have predicted a year ago:
Kam Chancellor made the pro bowl over Kurt Coleman? That may be the biggest joke in this popularity contests history.
— Blake Baratz (@blakebaratz) December 23, 2015
Mark Saltveit latest book is "Controlled Chaos: Chip Kelly's Football Revolution." In addition to sportswriting, he is a standup comedian and the World Palindrome Champion.