Dallas Cowboys center Tyler Biadasz earns late bid to Pro Bowl
With Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce headed to the Super Bowl to face the Kansas City Chiefs, Dallas Cowboys center Tyler Biadasz has earned a late bid to the Pro Bowl. The Pro Bowl selection is the first of his career and it allows him to join six of his teammates this weekend in Las Vegas.
CeeDee Lamb, Zack Martin, DeMarcus Lawrence, Trevon Diggs, Micah Parsons and KaVontae Turpin are the other six Cowboys due to appear in this year’s pared-down festivities. Due to his high-ankle sprain and fibula fracture, running back Tony Pollard won’t be able to participate. Dalvin Cook is his substitute.
Biadasz, drafted in the fourth round of the 2020 NFL Draft out of Wisconsin, took over the starting center role for the Cowboys in 2021. This season, the 25-year-old was a consistent presence in the middle of the Dallas offensive line. He suffered a high-ankle sprain at the end of the season but made a comeback in time to play in both playoff games.
After signing a four-year deal out of Wisconsin, the former Badger is still one season away from entering unrestricted free agency. He is playing on a rookie deal worth $3,789,400. Included in his contract is a proven performance escalator. His base salary increases to $2,745,000 in 2023.
NFL replaces Pro Bowl with skills competition, flag football game
After the 2021 season, the NFL opted to revamp the Pro Bowl. Replacing the tradition event is now a weeklong skills competition and a flag football game.
The new event replaces the full-contact showcase the NFL started in 1951. It is now ‘The Pro Bowl Games’ and features AFC and NFC players. They’ll showcase their football and non-football skills in challenges over several days. The flag football game portion of the event will be at Allegiant Stadium on Feb. 5.
Peyton Manning and his Omaha Productions company are playing a major role in this year’s event.
After the play that has been seen in the Pro Bowl over recent seasons, something had to be done. Moreover, NFL executive Peter O’Reilly told The Associated Press that the feedback regarding the new system has been “overwhelmingly positive” from both players and teams.
“The Pro Bowl is something that we’ve been looking at for a while, really continuing to evolve,” O’Reilly told The Associated Press. “Coming out of last year’s game, we really made the decision based on a lot of internal conversations, getting feedback from GMs and coaches, getting a lot of feedback from players. We think there’s a real opportunity to do something wholly different here and move away from the traditional tackle football game. We decided the goal is to celebrate 88 of the biggest stars in the NFL in a really positive, fun, yet competitive way.
“The feedback very directly from guys who had been in the Pro Bowl recently was to keep the construct of the week, make sure you’re having that multi-day element. It was overwhelmingly positive both from players as well as from clubs.”