The 2023 NFL Pro Bowl roster is officially out, and several Buffalo Bills made the cut. However, in addition to the Bills Pro Bowl players, there are also several Bills Pro Bowl snubs. With that in mind, let’s look at a few Buffalo players who have played great in the 2022 NFL season (like Matt Milano, Dion Dawkins, and Ed Oliver), compare them to the players that made the 2023 Pro Bowl roster ahead of them, and identify the biggest Bills Pro Bowl snubs of the year.
Bills Pro Bowl players
Before we start on the Bills Pro Bowl snubs, let’s take a moment to congratulate the well-deserving Bills Pro Bowl players. That list included:
- Josh Allen, QB
- Stefon Diggs, WR (starter)
- Mitch Morse, C
- Jordan Poyer, S
Additionally, the 2022 Bills have 12 players named as alternates in case players on the main Pro Bowl roster get injured, drop out, or make it to the Super Bowl. These players are:
- Dion Dawkins, OT, 1st alternate
- Dawson Knox, TE, 1st alternate
- Matt Milano, LB, 1st alternate
- Tremaine Edwards, LB, 1st alternate
- Rodger Saffold, OG, 2nd alternate
- Tyler Bass, K, 2nd alternate
- Tyler Matakevich, ST, 3rd alternate
- Reid Ferguson, LS, 3rd alternate
- Reggie Gilliam, FB, 3rd alternate
- Gregory Rousseau, DE, 4th alternate
- Ed Oliver, DT, 4th alternate
- Siran Neal, ST, 4th alternate
All these players were great for the Bills in 2022, and in a vacuum, they all deserve to be “Pro Bowl players.” However, the NFL pro Bowl team only has a certain number of spots at each position. So, in order for a player to be a true “Pro Bowl snub,” you have to make the argument that they deserve it more than the players on the team.
For example, Dawson Knox is having an excellent season with 43 catches, 466 yards, and four touchdowns. That said, you can’t argue that he deserves one of the two AFC tight end slots over Travis Kelce (91 catches, 1,144 yards, 12 TDs) or Mark Andrews (61 catches, 702 yards, five TDs). His 1st alternate spot is just right for Knox.
That said, there are three Bills who are snubs, and you can make the case that they deserve to be on the first-team roster over players ahead of them.
Bills Pro Bowl Snubs
Matt Milano
The biggest Bills Pro Bowl snub is linebacker Matt Milano. The sixth-year veteran is the best all-around linebacker in the NFL this season. Whether it is stuffing the run, blitzing the quarterback, spying a running QB, or covering top tight ends, Milano has done it all for the Bills this season.
Milano made some of the biggest plays of the year for the Bills, which is why he deserves to be on the team, and not a 1st alternate. He spied Patrick Mahomes vs. the Kansas City Chiefs and forced the QB into a game-clinching interception. He also kept tabs on Lamar Jackson and made two crucial open-field, one-on-one tackles to save big plays. In the New York Jets game, he also folded Mike White in half like one of the card tables the Bills Mafia jumps through in the parking lot.
While Baltimore Ravens linebacker Roquan Smith had a solid season after the trade that sent him from the Chicago Bears to the AFC, his 47 tackles, 2.0 sacks, one QB hit, one interception, and two passes defended in the conference don’t hold a candle to Milano’s 85 tackles, 1.5 sacks, six QB hits, two fumble recoveries, two interceptions, eight passes defended, and one touchdown.
Dion Dawkins
The next Bills Pro Bowl snub is left tackle Dion Dawkins. It’s hard to quantify OL with stats, but the Bills offense is one of the best in the league, and the left tackle is a huge part of that. The offense is fourth in scoring and second in yards. It is also second in DVOA, eighth in power run rank and adjusted sack rate, and ninth in pass protection, per Football Outsiders.
Add that all up, and you can see that the Bills O-line is among the best in the league, and Dawkins anchors that line. The player to knock off the Pro Bowl team is Houston Texans tackle Laremy Tunsil. The Texans line is nowhere near as good, and while Tunsil is similar to Dawkins talent0wise, OL spots in the Pro Bowl have to factor in team success.
Ed Oliver
This is the hardest one to justify with straight numbers because Ed Oliver has missed three-plus games this season, and he doesn’t have the sack numbers that the Chiefs’ Chris Jones (11.0), the Jets’ Quinnen Williams (11.0), or the Titans’ Jeffery Simmons do (7.5).
However, the Bills have the No. 2 defense in the league, which is three spots higher than the Jets, 10 spots higher than the Titans, and 17 spots higher than the Chiefs. And a lot of that has to do with the havoc Oliver causes on the defensive line.
What Oliver does won't always show up in the stat sheet, but when he is healthy and on, the eye test tells us he is one of the best DTs in the entire league. That’s why Oliver is a Pro Bowl snub and should be on the team over Simmons.
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