Dolphins Ryan Tannehill watches Tyrod Taylor get Pro-Bowl nod

The annual Pro-Bowl is a joke. It’s been a joke for years and the NFL finds more and more reasons to make it a joke. This year Tyrod Taylor will be one of the quarterbacks present in Honolulu. Ryan Tannehill will not be.

With Cam Newton heading to the Super Bowl and three of the other six nominated quarterbacks withdrawing, the league plopped in Buffalo’s Tyrod Taylor. Sorry Ryan Tannehill but your 4,000 plus passing yards and 24 touchdowns weren’t enough to gain entry.

Six quarterbacks were voted into the annual pre-Super Bowl game. Aaron Rodgers, Ben Roethlisberger, and Carson Palmer have all opted out. Cam Newton can’t play leaving only Russell Wilson and Tom Brady as part of the original six. Replacing the voted quarterbacks are Derek Carr and Eli Manning and of course Taylor.

Taylor did not have a pro-bowl season and it could be argued that not many quarterbacks did. Phillip Rivers was a 4th alternate but declined as well. It’s almost a guarantee that Tom Brady will drop out of the event sometime in the next 24 hours. That means another quarterback will need to be plucked.

Tannehill finished the season with over 4,200 passing yards, 24 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions and he posted an 89 passer rating. Taylor finished with just over 3,000 yards, 20 touchdowns, and six interceptions with a 99 passer rating. Of course the Bills also finished better than the Dolphins as well.

With Rivers, Roethlisberger, Newton, Dalton, Palmer, Manning, and soon enough Tom Brady out, and Eli Manning, Russell Wilson, Derek Carr, and Tyrod Taylor in, the group represents 11 of the leagues 32 quarterbacks and two more will have to be named to the roster by Wednesday assuming Brady bows out.

Tannehill didn’t have a pro-bowl season but it’s possible that he could end up on the roster if the dominos continue to fall. I’m not advocating that Tannehill deserves to go to the pro-bowl. I’m not. I’m not on board with Taylor either. Of course I’m really not on board with the whole Pro-Bowl as it is. What will be funny is watching the draft coaches not take a quarterback until later in the “Pro-Bowl Draft”. Another joke.

What’s even funnier is that the league took Taylor over Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins who had a very good season leading his team to the NFC East title.

The bigger question is with so many players at quarterback and other positions dropping out of the game, when should the NFL drop the game all together? Now would be a good time. The NFL could just as easily revamp the voting process, eliminate the game, name first and second teams, and then award the players voted in with something more substantial than a trip to Hawaii. Of course they could simply award a trip to Hawaii for the players and leave it at that. A trip for the family to the islands.