The Pro Bowl teams have been announced, with the Indianapolis Colts only getting one player through. That being the now six-time Pro Bowl right guard Quenton Nelson.
Indy’s mainstay on the offensive line has played another solid season, allowing one sack, three QB hits, 16 hurries, and 20 pressures through 1,075 offensive snaps, per Pro Football Focus.
While Nelson now has as many Pro Bowls as years played in the NFL, the alternates for the Colts are a bigger surprise, along with a few others.
C Ryan Kelly, DT DeForest Buckner, LB Zaire Franklin, and WR Michael Pittman Jr. will be backups for the Pro Bowl. However, Franklin (league leader in tackles - 170) and Pittman (104 catches for 1,108 catches and four TDs) are the names that stick out as the biggest exclusions from the nominations on this list.
Along with them, CB Kenny Moore II (91 tackles, 1.5 sacks, six pass defenses, three INTs, 115 return yards, and two TDs) and LT Bernhard Raimann could also be considered snubs from the Pro Bowl and weren’t even alternates.
However, there may be no bigger eyebrow-raisers than Raimann and Franklin.
In his second year as a pro, Raimann leads the offensive line in overall blocking (83.9) and pass-blocking grade (81.2) through 946 snaps. Both of these grades best Nelson’s (68.4 overall and 79.6 pass-blocking.) Raimann was also a nasty run-blocker, posting an efficient 77.1 for the year thus far.
As for Franklin, he’s topped, again, the Colts’ single-season franchise record for tackles with 170 (167 in 2022) and sits at the zenith of the NFL in the statistic. He’s also added six pass defenses, three tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, and two forced fumbles. The six-year Indy defender has played lights out and will look to focus on the task ahead, winning on Saturday to get into the Wild Card against the Houston Texans.
At the end of it all, the nominations aren’t the most important thing to an NFL player. However, it’s a bit of a bummer for these players who have stepped up, had career seasons, and in some cases, set more franchise records, couldn’t make it.
The aforementioned Colts names will take their highly productive ways into Lucas Oil Stadium to defend home turf on Saturday, with a playoff spot, and potential AFC South title, hanging in the balance.
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