Tua Tagovailoa was the top recipient of the fan vote for the 2023 Pro Bowl Games – but he was not named a Pro Bowl selection.
It did not take long to find the first major snub of the 2023 Pro Bowl Games. As the league conducts a made-for-TV release on NFL Network of the players selected for the Pro Bowl, they released the six quarterbacks to make the game as the first announcement. For the NFC, the selected quarterbacks were the Philadelphia Eagles’ Jalen Hurts, the Seattle Seahawks’ Geno Smith, and the Minnesota Vikings’ Kirk Cousins.
On the AFC side, the selected players were the Kansas City Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes, the Buffalo Bills’ Josh Allen, and the Cincinnati Bengals’ Joe Burrow. Noticeably absent from the list is Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.
Tagovailoa was the top vote-getter in the league this year from the fan vote. No player in the league received more votes from the fans and, while the fan vote only counts for one-third of the determination of the roster, the fact that the fans voted Tagovailoa as the top choice in the league, and he did not make the roster, is clearly a snub.
Miami’s 2020 fifth-overall draft pick, Tagovailoa leads the league in passer rating and yards per attempt this season. He is 12th in the league in passing yards with 3,238 yards, despite having missed nearly three full games. A selection to the Pro Bowl Games would have marked the first time he was selected as an all-star in his career.
The rest of the announcements are on going on NFL Network.