Ravens QB Huntley to Pro Bowl after 2-TD season

The Baltimore Ravens announced Tuesday that they’re sending a quarterback to the Pro Bowl.

No, it is not Lamar Jackson. It’s — surprise — Tyler Huntley.

A fourth alternate, Huntley was added to replace Josh Allen (elbow injury), becoming one of the most unlikely participants ever in the Pro Bowl.

Huntley threw two touchdown passes this season, the fewest by far for a quarterback selected to the Pro Bowl since the 1970 merger, according to ESPN Stats & Information research. The previous low was six touchdown passes by the Philadelphia Eagles‘ Mike Boryla in 1975. In filling in for the injured Jackson for six games, Huntley passed for a total of 658 yards, which ranked 48th in the NFL this season.

When the initial Pro Bowl rosters were announced in December, Patrick Mahomes was named the starter, and Allen and Joe Burrow were selected as backups. The alternates were: Tua Tagovailoa (first), Justin Herbert (second) and Jackson (third).

Mahomes can’t attend the Pro Bowl because the Kansas City Chiefs are playing in the Super Bowl. Four other quarterbacks are unable to play because of injury: Allen (elbow), Tagovailoa (concussion), Herbert (shoulder) and Jackson (knee). Burrow is also out for the exhibition.

All of these banged-up quarterbacks opened a spot for Huntley, who struggled in throwing two touchdowns and three interceptions this season. Huntley becomes the first quarterback since Vince Young in 2006 to make the Pro Bowl after throwing more interceptions than touchdowns.

In addition to Huntley, quarterbacks Derek Carr of the Las Vegas Raiders and Trevor Lawrence of the Jacksonville Jaguars were also added to the Pro Bowl roster Tuesday.

Carr tweeted out his news.

Well… maybe this invitation got lost in the mail from past seasons but I’m going back to pro bowl #4. See you soon Vegas!

— Derek Carr (@derekcarrqb) January 31, 2023

The Pro Bowl Games are being held in Las Vegas this week. The grand finale flag football game will take place at Allegiant Stadium on Sunday. All of which might serve as a farewell for Carr, whose time with the Raiders appears to be over.

Carr had been the Raiders’ starting quarterback since being selected in the second round of the 2014 NFL draft while the team was still in Oakland. But he was benched ahead of Week 17 in favor of Jarrett Stidham and stayed away from the team. Carr finished with 3,522 passing yards, 24 touchdowns and 14 interceptions in 15 games for the Raiders. He is replacing Burrow on the Pro Bowl roster.

Lawrence rebounded from a rough rookie season and completed 67.3% of his passes for 4,113 yards and 25 touchdowns with eight interceptions. He surged in the second half of the season, throwing 15 touchdown passes and only two interceptions in Weeks 9-18.

Lawrence led the Jaguars to come-from-behind victories over the Ravens, Raiders and Los Angeles Chargers. He also rebounded from a fumble with less than two minutes to play to lead the Jaguars to a game-tying field goal as time expired in regulation against the Dallas Cowboys.

Lawrence threw four interceptions in the first half of the wild-card playoff game against the Chargers, but then threw four touchdown passes to rally the Jaguars from a 27-0 deficit. The Jaguars won 31-30 on Riley Patterson’s 36-yard field goal as time expired.

This marks the first year the NFL is replacing the Pro Bowl with weeklong skills competitions and a series of flag football games. The new event will replace the full-contact showcase that started in 1951.

Information from ESPN’s Paul Gutierrez was used in this report.