NFL: 25 Most Surprising Pro Bowl Picks This Century

NFL: 25 Most Surprising Pro Bowl Picks This Century: 22. 2010 David Garrard

It’s hard to have a surprising quarterback make the Pro Bowl. Only the top seven or eight quarterbacks make the Pro Bowl every year. There are the top six (three in each conference), then there are one or two alternates every year. So, it’s always the Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers, and Tom Brady who make it then the secondary quarterbacks like Phil Rivers, Josh Allen, and Donovan McNabb who always seem to make the Pro Bowl. However, every once in a while there’s a name that slops through that makes us all ask some questions.

David Garrard was that quarterback in the 2009 season. He was always an interesting quarterback for the Jacksonville Jaguars. He took over when Byron Leftwich didn’t live completely up to his hype. Interesting stat about Garrard is he started with the Jaguars in 2002, and he finally made a Pro Bowl in 2009. He was known as a quarterback who didn’t ruffle any feathers while making the safe play. And that’s how he made the Pro Bowl.

Garrard threw for 15 touchdowns and 10 interceptions in 2009, and that led to a Pro Bowl nod. That seems like a mistake. This one might be an outlier. That’s because the AFC needed three alternate quarterbacks this season.

Garrard got lucky, but that doesn’t make it any less strange that he made the Pro Bowl. He was a fine quarterback from what he was, but nobody was arguing that he was one of the best in the league. The Pro Bowl quarterbacks should at least have a passing resemblance to one of the best in the NFL.