Aaron Rodgers

Drew Brees snub shows how irrelevant Pro Bowl is

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 11:10 p.m. ET

Fansided, Roy Anderson/FanSided via Who Dat Dish

New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees leads the league in several passing categories yet was passed over for the 2017 NFL Pro Bowl for Cowboys rookie QB Dak Prescott. The snub shows how irrelevant that game has become.

GLENDALE, AZ – DECEMBER 18: Quarterback Drew Brees

Saints quarterback Drew Brees leads the NFL, not the NFC, in the following categories: average completions per game, completions, attempts, touchdowns, yards, and is fourth in the league in quarterback rating and second in completion percentage. Dak Prescott, who made the Pro Bowl is in the top five in two of those categories: completion percentage and quarterback rating. In five of those categories Prescott isn’t even in the top ten.

Brees for the year has thrown for 4,559 yards at a completion rate of 71.1% for 34 TDs and 14 INTs with a quarterback rating of 103.0. Prescott is 67.7% for 3,418, 20 TDs and 4 INTs with a quarterback rating of 103.2. He edges out Brees in quarterback rating based solely on a solid TD/INT ratio.

Certainly Prescott is a rising star in the league. He may, one day, be an elite NFL quarterback like Drew Brees currently is. Time will ultimately tell if Prescott comes anywhere near the kind of career Brees has had. But right now it’s not even close.

Dec 18, 2016; Glendale, AZ, USA; New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees (9) against the Arizona Cardinals at University of Phoenix Stadium. The Saints defeated the Cardinals 48-41. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Drew Brees is in rarified air. His career numbers put him in lofty top 3 all time lists in numerous relevant categories. But let’s not even look to the past. This season Drew Brees has more passing yards and touchdowns than any quarterback in the league. Higher than Atlanta’s Matt Ryan and Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers, the other two NFC Pro Bowl selections along with Dak Prescott.

Certainly the Pro Bowl is a popularity contest. Fans do the vast majority of the voting. The Dallas Cowboys have one of the strongest fanbases in all of professional sports. It also helps that the Cowboys are winning and the Saints aren’t.

But this is insane.

Nobody watches the Pro Bowl. More people probably watch NFL things that don’t even feature a

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game such as the NFL Draft and the NFL Rookie Combine than watch the Pro Bowl. It’s been so bad that the league, for a time, went from their normal NFC/AFC matchup to one where Jerry Rice and Deion Sanders picked teams like a pick up game. Nothing has made it gain popularity, not changes of venue or cooler looking uniforms or gimmicky team selection.

So it really shouldn’t cause so much consternation, yet it does. To see a player of Drew Brees’ caliber get so publicly snubbed is absolutely inexcusable. Even for a meaningless sideshow like the Pro Bowl. The NFL needs to change how balloting is done for the game just to make the whole thing appear less of a joke than it is.

Nothing will save the Pro Bowl but at least the NFL could make moves to try to make it appear legitimate in assessing who deserves to be in it. Drew Brees deserves to be in it.