Cincinnati Bengals: Are any players deserving of Pro Bowl nod?

Are there any Cincinnati Bengals who are worthy of going to the Pro Bowl?

With the season’s conclusion rapidly approaching and the Cincinnati Bengals yet again essentially out of the running for a playoff berth, there isn’t much remaining for fans to do but await the inevitable and hope some much-needed changes are made in the offseason.

There is still one thing for a team like Cincinnati to look forward to: the Pro Bowl! The actual game may have lived long past its actual entertainment value, but the construction of the teams is an underrated way to understand the story of every season.

Where do the Bengals fall in that story? Or, put another way: is there anybody on the Cincinnati Bengals right now who is actually deserving of being voted onto this year’s version of the team?

Voting officially ended recently, but since we won’t know the players selected for a little while, let’s take a look around the Bengals’ roster and speculate about the answer.

IR-Stars

First off, we should note that a lot of the players who may have had some level of claim for a spot on this roster won’t actually be available to vote on. Why? Because they’ve been lost at some point this season to injury, and that keeps them from being eligible on the voting list.

On that list are a bunch of prominent names, especially on offense:

• QB: Andy Dalton
• WR: A.J. Green
• TE: Tyler Eifert
• DE: Carl Lawson

Had they been healthy all year, each of those guys would have at least an outside chance at being a worthy selection for the Pro Bowl.

Dalton was putting up really good stats for most of the season before having some turnover issues rear their ugly head as injuries decimated the roster around him (and eventually taking him down as well).

Green’s stats across nine games would’ve had him on pace for 80+ catches, 1,200+ yards, and 10+ touchdowns — and that includes a Denver contest in which he had just one catch for seven yards before succumbing to his season-ending injury.

The offense was at its most prolific with Eifert in tow, and he was on pace for career highs in receptions (60) and receiving yards (716) through the first month of the year.

Lawson was by far Cincinnati’s best pass rusher this year. While he had just one sack in seven games, he was pressuring the quarterback enough to believe he could’ve started picking them up in bunches with some better luck in the second half of the season — exactly the sort of eye-catching performance that could enamor the voting public.

With the guys on IR out of the way, much of the expected Pro Bowl-eligible firepower is out the door. Still, there are at least a few players left standing who are worth considering in the process. Let’s start looking at them now.