The NFL announced the AFC and NFC rosters for the 2024 Pro Bowl Games and one Arizona Cardinals player, safety Budda Baker, made the squad.
It was the sixth time he has made the Pro Bowl and the fifth season in a row.
It is no surprise that Baker is the only player to make the Pro Bowl.
What is surprising is that they had zero alternates.
The Cardinals always announce Pro Bowl selections and Pro Bowl alternates, so the lack of an announcement indicates that they did not have any this year.
Two Cardinals warranted consideration as possible alternates — tight end Trey McBride and kicker Matt Prater.
TE Trey McBride
McBride has 78 catches for 791 yards and two touchdowns this season. But his production over the last two months is astounding. Since Week 8, he has caught 63 passes for 621 yards and two touchdowns.
That per-game production over an entire season would be 119 catches for 1,173 yards.
It’s a hard sell to say that he deserves a Pro Bowl selection over San Francisco’s George Kittle or Detroit’s Sam LaPorta. Kittle has more than 1,000 receiving yards and six scores. LaPorta has 81 catches for 860 yards and six touchdowns.
K Matt Prater
Prater is having a fantastic season. He is 26-for-29 on field goals and two of his misses are from 55 yards or longer. He had made a league-record six field goals of 55 yards or longer and has eight from 50 yards or beyond.
No one is saying that Dallas’ Brandon Aubrey, who has made all 35 of his field goals, should not have gotten the nod, but Prater as an alternate would have made sense.
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