3 Raiders named to AFC Pro Bowl roster
Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby will return to the Pro Bowl a year after he helped dismantle the entire structure of the game.
Crosby was one of three Raiders selected to the AFC team Wednesday, joining wide receiver Davante Adams and running back Josh Jacobs. Crosby was the only one designated as a starter.
Pro Bowl week will culminate Feb. 5 at Allegiant Stadium with a flag football game, a departure from the traditional version that essentially devolved into a half-speed, two-hand touch exhibition over the years, with players careful to avoid injury in a meaningless game just before the offseason.
Crosby turned up the intensity in his first Pro Bowl appearance last year, winning the defensive MVP while showing how silly the game could look when a player actually exerted some degree of effort. The performance helped spur changes that resulted in the game now becoming a flag football contest with celebrity coaches Peyton and Eli Manning.
Still, Crosby is a student of the league’s history and appreciates being selected by the votes of fans, players and coaches.
“I’m a big kid at the end of the day,” he said Wednesday. “I truly love what I do and everything about the game of football. So when you’re a kid and you see the guys in the Pro Bowl, you think about being in that game. I’m 25 years old, but getting voted to the Pro Bowl makes me feel like a kid again. It doesn’t even hit me.
“Obviously my family gets fired up even more than me, but it’s everything you work for. I want to be the best in the league and the best I can possibly be every single day, so being recognized for it is incredible.”
While he is on the roster for a second consecutive year, this selection marks six straight for Adams, who has been named to the last five NFC squads when he was with the Packers and now gets his first AFC nod in his first year with the Raiders.
“The best part is knowing your peers and the coaches and the fans all have a say in this, so it’s obviously an incredible honor,” he said.
One of the strange aspects of being selected to the Pro Bowl is that the ultimate goal is to be selected, but to eventually be forced to drop out because your team makes a run in the playoffs and all the way to the Super Bowl.
Adams hopes that proves to be the case for a Raiders team that still has an estimated 5 percent chance of making the postseason.
“I have my sights set on much bigger things than the Pro Bowl at this point,” he said. “I’m very thankful and grateful for the acknowledgement, but at the end of the day, we want better Bowls than that.”
Jacobs, the league’s leading rusher, is making his second Pro Bowl appearance and first since 2020.
Several players, most notably punter AJ Cole and kicker Daniel Carlson, were among the biggest snubs on the roster.
The Raiders do not announce their Pro Bowl alternates, but a source close to the team indicated Cole and Carlson were named “high” alternates.
Coach Josh McDaniels said the individual selections of those who were picked reflect the efforts of the entire team.
“It’s obviously a great honor for those guys because they work hard all year long to try to earn the respect and admiration of their peers and the people in the league that vote for that — the coaches, the players,” he said. “I would also tell you that I’ve probably never been around guys that get nominated and voted in that don’t think that their teammates have a ton to do with the fact that they were voted that way.”
“I think a lot of our guys (that are) fortunate enough to make it, would be the first to tell you that there’s a lot of other people that have something to do with that. Their teammates have certainly impacted them.”
Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.