Four Ole Miss Rebels are headed to the NFL’s 2024 Pro Bowl Games
Ole Miss will be well-represented at the 2024 Pro Bowl Games
The Pro Bowl Games each year pit player representatives from all 32 NFL teams — broken up into AFC and NFC — against each other in a series of competitions over multiple days. Kicking off the festivities is the Thursday Skills Showdown February 1 at 7 p.m. CT on ESPN.
Sunday’s Pro Bowl Games Championship is set for 2 p.m. CT at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida. The exhibition flag football game will be carried by ESPN, ABC, Disney XD, ESPN+, ESPN Deportes and NFL+.
Eight NFL teams are sending at least five players to Orlando. Four former Rebels earned spots: Wide receivers AJ Brown (Philadelphia Eagles) and DK Metcalf (Seattle Seahawks), offensive lineman Laremy Tunsil (Houston Texans) and tight end Evan Engram (Jacksonville Jaguars).
Brown earned his third Pro Bowl selection as one of six Eagles named to the games. However, Brown announced Tuesday he’s dropping out due to a knee injury suffered in the Eagles’ regular-season finale. Brown, as a result, missed the wild-card loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Detroit’s leading wideout, Amon-Ra St. Brown, will replace him.
“(Ole Miss) means everything, man,” Brown said of his alma mater at Super Bowl Media Day last February. His Eagles fell to the Kansas City Chiefs — who are back in the Super Bowl again this season and will face off against the San Francisco 49ers, the NFC champion, in two weeks.
“I bleed red and blue. (Ole Miss) is always home. That place will forever have a big place in my heart.”
Brown arrived in Philadelphia in 2022 through a draft-day trade with the Tennessee Titans. The Titans took him as a second-rounder in 2019.
He broke a 38-year Eagles record for single-season receiving yards in his debut season and did so again a year later. He also created a new single-season-best mark for receptions.
Brown, back in October, became the first player in NFL history with 125 receiving yards or more in six straight games. The record was previously held by NFL Hall of Famer Calvin Johnson.
“I’m always just striving to be better,” Brown said, in a previous interview with the Eagles’ official site.
Brown has played five NFL seasons. He was an All-American and Biletnikoff Award semifinalist at Ole Miss, where he had the most-ever 100-yard receiving games by a Rebel (12). He finished third in career receptions (189) and fifth in receiving touchdowns (19). He’s the only Ole Miss receiver on record with 60 or more receptions in back-to-back seasons.
“There’s always something I can improve on, and there’s always more,” Brown continued. “I’m trying to never get satisfied. I don’t want to get comfortable. If I get comfortable, it’s too late. I always try to picture myself at my highest ceiling and ask myself, ‘All right, what’s holding me back from getting there?’ And I try to take those steps to get that place.”
Metcalf is one of six Seahawks going to the games.
Metcalf, quarterback Geno Smith and special teamer Nick Bellore were all added as an injury replacements.
He’s taking the place of the Buccaneers’ Mike Evans for his second Pro Bowl, but he’ll be participating in the event for the first time. His other nod came in 2020. The event was cancelled, however, as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Metcalf is just the third receiver in Seattle’s franchise history with multiple selections, joining Steve Largent (seven) and Doug Baldwin (two). He led the Seahawks with 66 catches for 1,115 yards and eight touchdowns and averaged a career-best 16.9 yards per reception.
Metcalf has three 1,000-yard seasons in his five-year NFL career, all with Seahawks. Seattle drafted him with the last pick in the second round in 2019. Metcalf is one of just three receivers in NFL history to record at least 50 catches, 900 yards and six touchdowns in each of his first five seasons. The others are Randy Moss and A.J. Green.
“DK is only getting better,” Smith said of Metcalf, in an interview with the Seahawks’ official site. Metcalf has the most receptions (372), yards (5,332) and receiving touchdowns (43) through five seasons in team history.
“He’s only getting better. He’s only scratching the surface of who he’s going to be as a player. To say that is really scary, because he’s already one of the best.”
Tunsil is one of the NFL’s elite tackles.
He was voted a starter during initial voting and after allowing just 10 pressures and four sacks this season. Tunsil served as primary blind-side protector of Texans quarterback and Offensive Rookie of the Year frontrunner CJ Stroud. Stroud is in the Pro Bowl, too.
Tunsil ranked fourth among league tackles with an 84.9 pass-blocking grade. He was tops in the AFC. Tunsil signed a three-year extension last off-season, becoming the NFL’s highest-paid tackle for the second time in his career. He’s now up to four Pro Bowls, but this will be his first with the Texans. Tunsil joined Houston in a trade with the Miami Dolphins in 2019. The Dolphins drafted him in the first round (No. 13 overall) in 2016.
Engram is replacing Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, who’s headed to Super Bowl LVIII. Engram, meanwhile, is coming off a career year to earn his second selection. His first came with the New York Giants, his drafted team.
Engram is one of three Jaguars participating. Engram this season recorded the second-most receptions (114) in a single in league history. Zach Ertz holds the record (118), set in 2018. Engram added 963 yards and four touchdowns.
