Chiefs Pro Bowl Snubs

Here Are The Kansas City Chiefs Biggest Pro Bowl Snubs

Every season’s Pro Bowl Games roster comes complete with a complimentary list of Pro Bowl snubs. This year’s list certainly didn’t disappoint, especially when it comes to the Chiefs.

2nd-year linebacker Nick Bolton, 3rd-year cornerback L’Jarius Sneed and rookie running back Isiah Pacheco are just three players who could easily have been playing on Feb. 5 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

I’m hoping that they would rather play for the Lombardi than play in a Pro Bowl game, but that is not the point.

Here are the four Chiefs players who were the biggest 2023 Pro Bowl Game snubs:

1. Nick Bolton, MLB

How can one of the NFL’s leading tacklers not be selected for the Pro Bowl? He had the most votes than Ravens linebacker Roquan Smith last week but Smith got selected over him? Make this make sense. He had more votes than any AFC linebacker and yet Smith and Jets’ CJ Mosley got chosen.

The answer comes in the form of Nick Bolton being excluded from this year’s roster because his lead in that defensive category isn’t even close. Bolton’s 88 solo tackles is the 3rd-most in the NFL, and his 137 combined tackles ranks 5th in the league, with two sacks and two interceptions on top of that.

If things work themselves out the way they should have, these players could and should all be added to the Pro Bowl roster as players drop out and teams qualify for the Super Bowl. However, like i said earlier, the Lombardi is more important than the Pro Bowl games.

2. L’Jarius Sneed, CB

The third-year pro is experiencing a breakout season for the AFC West-leading Chiefs. As valuable as Pro Bowler Chris Jones has been in the front seven, Sneed has been that player in the backend. Similar to Bolton, it’s hard to understand how he still didn’t make the cut.

Despite the slow start, Sneed ranks No. 1 among all NFL cornerbacks in tackles through Week 15 with 95r. Sneed is also the only DB in the NFL with 5+ tackles in 14 games this season. He has been playing extremely well.

3. Frank Clark, DE

Clark is enjoying one of his best seasons in his eighth year in the league. Bengals edge rusher Trey Hendrickson might have one more sack than Clark (6.0) but Clark has one more tackle for loss and averages more tackles per game (2.67). On Sunday, he tormented Texans QB Davis Mills, forcing a championship winning fumble in order to secure the Chiefs 7th consecutive division title.

4. Isiah Pacheco, RB/RS

I can’t believe that the AFC’s leading kickoff return yards leader wasn’t selected to his first Pro Bowl. Pacheco has been exciting to watch as a player who was selected in the 7th round of the 2022 NFL Draft to now being that guy that defenders will fear the most when he touches the ball.

He doesn’t have the massive amount of carries as the guys who made it, but Pacheco is one of the leaders in the league (12th) in yards per carry (4.9, Better than Derrick Henry’s 4.4). He is also the number 1 kickoff return specialist in the AFC with 28 kickoff returns, which is 13 more than Ravens’ Devin Duvernay who was selected over Pacheco.

Pacheco even leads the AFC with the most kickoff return yards with 578 yards. Duvernay did have 16 punt returns including a 103 yard TD in the season. However, Duvernay’s success  shouldn’t takeaway from Pacheco’s impressive season.

While not everyone can make it, I believe these guys were very deserving. Nonetheless, they will hopefully be playing for the Lombardi instead.