Creed Humphrey, Nick Bolton en route to first Pro Bowl honor
By Matt Conner
The Kansas City Chiefs have several players vying for Pro Bowl honors this year, including a few first-time potential appearances.
The Kansas City Chiefs are going to get a few players into this year’s Pro Bowl without much trouble given that they employ two of the most popular athletes in the entire NFL. However, given recent vote totals as released by the league on Monday, it looks like the franchise might also see a couple of other players rewarded for the first time via the NFL’s version of an all-star exhibition.
The Chiefs are among the teams with the top five overall votes and much of that comes from the vote totals of quarterback Patrick Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce—both of whom are in the top five overall. However, the surprising news comes when looking down the leading vote-getters at each position to see who else might make it.
First, Mahomes is behind Tua Tagovailoa and Tyreek Hill among overall votes, and it’s clear that fans love the new dynamic duo for the Miami Dolphins. From there, Mahomes and Kelce are No. 3 and 5, respectively, with Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson at No. 4.
From there, things get very interesting. Creed Humphrey is currently the leading vote-getter at center in the AFC and the honor would cement him as the brightest young talent in the game at his position. It’s a well-earned honor at this point, and we’d love to see Humphrey stay there.
We’d also love to see Nick Bolton remain the highest vote tally among inside linebackers in the AFC, but this is quite a surprise given that some fans and analysts have been down on Bolton’s performance in his second year. He’s had a mercurial season in coverage, although he remains one of the game’s elite run defenders and a true threat to end up in the backfield on any given play.
Speaking of surprises, the Chiefs landed another Pro Bowler on the list with Isiah Pacheco as a return specialist. The Chiefs haven’t had Pacheco return a touchdown or anything, but he’s come on strong in the season’s second half in the backfield, and perhaps his popularity there as an emerging running back is making him a favorite overall. Pacheco is averaging 20.6 yards/return on the year.