NFL: 25 Most Surprising Pro Bowl Picks This Century: 13. 2016 Chris Ivory
Chris Ivory was a running back who was always someone you wanted on your team. He was reliable as a backup, and he could fill in as a starter on spot duty. There wasn’t a lot of drop off from the starter, and he picked up the slack when it was absolutely necessary. For the New York Jets, he even started for a few seasons, but he was never close to one of the best running backs in the league. Well, at least that’s our opinion.
The opinion of the Pro Bowl voters in 2015 was that Chris Ivory was one of the best rushers in the league. He just broke over the 1,000-yard mark. It was a strange season where only Adrian Peterson, Todd Gurley, and Doug Martin had over 1,100 yards on the season. So, Ivory was actually the fourth leading rusher on the season. To compare, the very next season had eight players who rushed for more than 1,100 yards. There was an outlier in 2016, and it allowed for Ivory to make the Pro Bowl.
Ivory would sign a five-year deal with the Jacksonville Jaguars that offseason, a deal they would immediately regret. He would never break 500 yards in a season again let alone 1,000. The position has been cursed for the Jaguars since Fred Taylor left. It happened again this season with Travis Etienne and James Robinson.
Ivory was a compliment for a long time until a team paid him like a starter. Then, things started to fall apart, and he was out of the league by the time he was 31.