How Many Chicago Bears Players Were Snubbed for the Pro Bowl

Leading up to the announcement of the Pro Bowl voting, it had been well known that many Chicago Bears players were some of the top fan vote getters. Guys like Nashon Wright (he’s now in the Pro Bowl as an alternate), Caleb Williams, Darnell Wright, and many others were at the top of the list for the Pro Bowl.

Then, it all came crashing down.

The player vote, which is worth the same as the fan vote, told us a different story and made us realize that the Pro Bowl voting is nothing more than a popularity contest. Add into that the coaches’ vote, another 1/3 of the tally, and it’s true, it’s how popular you can be and maybe not how good a football player you are.

Out of all those Chicago Bears players who got many fan votes, only three made it to the Pro Bowl. Those three players were center Drew Dahlman, guard Joe Tuney, and safety Kevin Byard. This is very disappointing for Bears fans, but more importantly, the players who deserved to be in the Pro Bowl over some of the other choices.

Who Should be Out?

The Pro Bowl appears to be driven, on the players’ side, by whoever is the most popular player. If you look at the choices for quarterback on the NFC side, Matthew Stafford, Sam Darnold, and Dak Prescott were added ahead of Williams. They have decent stats; you can’t beat that, and two of them, Darnold and Stafford, have the wins to back themselves up. But what quarterback has guided his team to several come-from-behind wins?

Williams wouldn’t make the Pro Bowl with the likes of Prescott and Stafford being there. He could make it an alternate, which would be great. More representation by the Bears would be huge and is warranted. But you won’t get that, at least not this year.

There are other players from other teams that are on the Pro Bowl roster who leave you scratching your head as to why they are even in the Pro Bowl. Jalen Carter makes you wonder why he is there. But there wasn’t a defensive lineman, for the Bears, who was worthy of making the Pro Bowl roster this season.

Still Not a Pro Bowler?

There are a couple of other players on offense who were selected in place of some popular Chicago Bears players. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am an Iowa guy. I think George Kittle is awesome, but he missed several games and still made the Pro Bowl. He does have some nice stats for the games he has played in, but for a player who has been injured as often as he has this year, why would he land in the Pro Bowl?

There are a handful of other players, both on the NFC and the AFC squads, who might not have deserved a Pro Bowl nod. But we won’t debate any longer. It’s clear that some Bears were snubbed from making it, but that happens. They don’t have quite the reputation that the teams that had the most Pro Bowlers have just yet.
It will happen in time for sure.

The Fan Vote Contention

Listening to Chicago sports radio, 670 theScore, I heard some interesting commentary about the weight of the fan vote and how it should not be as equal as the player voting. If you go back and listen to the NFL Network, they talk somewhat negatively about the fan vote. They say people across the league don’t like it. That, to me, is kind of a slap in the face of the fans.

And what is a slap in the face of a Bears fan? They had many of the team’s better players at the top end of the fan vote. But hardly any of those players got selected. Is the player vote worth much more than the fan vote?
I went ahead and did some research to find out exactly that. I discovered that each vote, and there are three, the coaches’ vote, the fan vote, and the players’ vote, counts for one-third of the total vote. The fan vote can be very high for a player, but if the coaches and the player’s peers don’t vote for him, it’s all for not.

If the Pro Bowl is really about popularity, then why doesn’t the fan vote count more? Some think that the fan vote is worthless, but it’s not.

Popularity versus Production

Some out there feel the Pro Bowl is a popularity contest. While this might be true, there is an essence of some continuity in that some of the same players are added to the roster year after year, even though they may be in decline, injured, or have other issues. Champ Bailey reminds me of someone who made the Pro Bowl way more than he should have.

Now, none of this is because there were very few Bears on the Pro Bowl roster. It’s just that you would think consistently good players, whose play is based on the current season and not what they have done in the past season, would be selected. This happens more often than one thinks.

In the End

In the end, it’s a bummer that there weren’t that many more Bears players selected to the Pro Bowl. But the team is just starting to get noticed. Their players are beginning to be seen as good. I suspect we will see even more Bears players in the NFL’s all-star game next year. They are going in the right direction, are extremely talented, and getting much better as they go.

This team should easily be able to put five to seven players in the Pro Bowl next season. This, provided they stay healthy and keep performing well. Guys like Darnell Wright, Joe Thuney, Drew Dahlman, and several others should be able to crack the Pro Bowl lineups. They can then give the Bears strong representation going forward. Look for Chicago to have a large presence there in 2026-2027, being one of the best teams in the NFL.