With the 49ers headed for the Super Bowl, Jalen Hurts and Darius Slay have been added to the NFC Pro Bowl team.
This is Hurts’ second straight Pro Bowl and Slay’s third straight and sixth in seven years. Both were first alternates.
Hurts replaces Brock Purdy and Slay replaces Charvarius Ward. The 49ers beat the Lions 34-31 in the NFC Championship Game Sunday. The Pro Bowl isn’t a real game anymore, but the Pro Bowl Games are scheduled for Thursday and Sunday in Orlando. Players on the two Super Bowl teams don’t participate.
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Hurts is the first Eagles quarterback to make back-to-back Pro Bowl teams since Donovan McNabb made five in a row from 2000 through 2004. He’s the sixth Eagles QB to make multiple Pro Bowls but only the third since 1960.
Adrian Burk was a Pro Bowler in 1954 and 1955, Bobby Thomason in 1953, 1955 and 1956, Norm Van Brocklin from 1958 through 1960 and Randall Cunningham from 1988 through 1990.
Hurts and McNabb are the only Eagles quarterbacks to make multiple Pro Bowls in their first four seasons.
Although Hurts’ performance dropped off from the 2022 Super Bowl season, he still ranked second in the NFL with 38 total touchdowns – 23 passing and 15 rushing.
Philadelphia Eagles
Hurts and Patrick Mahomes are the only quarterbacks to make the Pro Bowl in each of the last two seasons.
Slay made his first three Pro Bowls with the Lions in 2017, 2018 and 2019. He wasn’t selected in 2000, his first year with the Eagles, but has now been picked to three in a row. He’s the fourth Eagles corner to make three straight Pro Bowls.
He joins Troy Vincent, Eric Allen and Asante Samuel as the fourth corner in Eagles history to make at least three Pro Bowls. Vincent made four straight from 1999 through 2003, Allen made four in a row from 1991 through 1994 and Samuel made three straight from 2008 through 2010.
Slay is the 16th cornerback in NFL history named to at least six Pro Bowls. Of the 13 who are eligible for the Hall of Fame, the only one not inducted are Lamar Parrish, who played for the Bengals in the 1970s, and Allen, who is a finalist this year.
Slay had two interceptions and 14 pass deflections this year. He’s had three or fewer interceptions in five of his six Pro Bowl seasons. Only Champ Bailey and Patrick Peterson have had more career Pro Bowl seasons with three or fewer INTs.
Overall, Slay has 28 career interceptions – 19 with the Lions and nine with the Eagles. His 28 interceptions since he became a full-time starter in 2014 are 6th-most in the NFL – tied with Kevin Byard and Stephon Gilmore.
Slay, who turned 33 during the season, is the oldest Pro Bowl cornerback since Champ Bailey made the team in 2012 at 34 years old.
The Eagles’ other Pro Bowl selections this year are Jason Kelce, Lane Johnson, Haason Reddick, Landon Dickerson, D’Andre Swift and A.J. Brown. Their eight total Pro Bowlers are 4th-most in franchise history behind the 2002, 2004 and 2009 teams. They also had eight Pro Bowlers in 1960, 2001, 2014 and last year.
The Eagles announced that Brown won’t participate this weekend because of the knee injury he suffered in the regular-season finale against the Giants that sidelined him for the wild-card game in Tampa. He’ll be replaced by Amon-Ra St. Brown of the Lions.
With 36-year-old Jason Kelce, 33-year-old Lane Johnson and 33-year-old Slay, the Eagles are the first NFL team with three Pro Bowlers 33 or older since the 2016 Bills with Lorenzo Alexander (33), Richie Incognito (33) and Kyle Williams (33).
The only other time the Eagles had three Pro Bowlers 33 or older was 1964 with 35-year-old Sam Baker, 33-year-old Jim Ringo and 33-year-old Pete Retzlaff.
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