Two Bills were named to the Pro Bowl Wednesday: wide receiver Stefon Diggs and left tackle Dion Dawkins.
It’s the second nod for Diggs – both coming during his time in Buffalo – and the first for Dawkins. The 2022 Pro Bowl will take place in Las Vegas on Feb. 6 at Allegiant Stadium.
Nine Bills were named as alternates:
• 1st alternates: quarterback Josh Allen, linebacker Tremaine Edmunds.
• 2nd alternates: tight end Dawson Knox, linebacker Tyler Matakevich.
• 3rd alternates: safety Jordan Poyer, long snapper Reid Ferguson.
• 4th alternate: safety Micah Hyde.
• 5th alternates: center Mitch Morse, kicker Tyler Bass.
Last season, the Bills had five players named to the Pro Bowl: Diggs, Allen, Edmunds, cornerback Tre’Davious White and return specialist Andre Roberts.
In his second year with the Bills, Diggs has 1,007 receiving yards and eight touchdowns on 82 catches. He is the first Bills wide receiver to been selected to the Pro Bowl in consecutive years since Andre Reed (1988-94).
After bouncing back from his first bout with Covid-19 during the summer, Dawkins has steadily improved over the course of this season. In protecting Allen, he became the first Bills offensive lineman named to the Pro Bowl since Richie Incognito in 2017.
The Indianapolis Colts led the league with seven players named to the Pro Bowl.
Of the Bills alternates, Poyer and Hyde were the more perplexing snubs. The AFC safeties named to the Pro Bowl were the Tennessee Titans' Kevin Byard, the Los Angeles Chargers' Derwin James and the Kansas City Chiefs' Tyrann Mathieu. Byard (73 tackles and five interceptions) is the starting free safety, and James (103 tackles and two picks) the starting strong safety.
Poyer has five interceptions this season, along with nine passes defended, five tackles for loss and 81 tackles. Hyde has three picks, eight passes defended, four tackles for loss and 61 tackles. The Bills defense as a whole is first in the NFL in both total yards allowed (287.9) and passing yards allowed (175.6) per game, and has allowed a league-low 11 passing touchdowns this season.
Separate from the Pro Bowl selections themselves, Poyer spoke during his Wednesday press conference about how he believes the Bills defense doesn’t generally get the respect it deserves, though that does provide one benefit.
“It’ll probably never change. But we use it as fuel,” Poyer said. “I know that's cliche, but at the same time, we understand the lack of respect for I'm talking about our group in particular, but even for our defense. ... We use it as fire, we use it as fuel to fuel the fire and really try to just continue to come in here every day.
“And days that maybe we are tired and coming in here, Micah and I are motivating each other saying, ‘Hey, they don’t respect us. We got to go to work.’ And it's just a little motivation that we continue to use and we'll continue to use even if we ever did get the respect.”
