The 2024 Pro Bowl rosters will be announced on Wednesday night (8 p.m. ET on NFL Network, should you be so inclined). The Detroit Lions are sure to have some players at the Pro Bowl Games again this year, unless they are in the Super Bowl of course.
The selection process is one-third fan voting, one-third player voting and one-third coaches voting. The final results of fan voting have been released, and here's where Lions' players sit at their positions (h/t to Justin Rogers of the Detroit News).
Frank Ragnow: 4th
Aidan Hutchinson: 7th
Kerby Joseph: 10th
Jared Goff: 8th
Jahmyr Gibbs: 4th
David Montgomery: 8th
Penei Sewell: 5th
Sam LaPorta: 4th
Amon-Ra St. Brown: 7th
Again, fan voting is only one-third of the Pro Bowl selection process. So whatever issue there is related to where some Lions' players rank with naturally biased fans who can flood ballots, it can be rectified as their peers and opposing coaches have their voting results released.
4 Detroit Lions players have potential financial stakes attached to Pro Bowl voting results
NFL players can have all kinds of potential incentives, escalators, etc. in their contract, related to performance and awards. Two articles in the Collective Bargaining Agreement outline how a player can get a raise based on being an original selection to the Pro Bowl.
-Article 7, Section 4 (e) (iv) creates a tier of Proven Performance Escalator that can raise the salary of a player drafted outside of the first round to the value of the 2nd round restricted free agent tender.
-Article 7, Section 7 (g) (iii-iv) calls for fifth year options on first round rookie contracts to equate to the transition tag if named to a Pro Bowl once in their first three seasons, and to the franchise tag for two or three.
In early December, and presumably still the same now, Over The Cap listed some players who have potential pay raises attached to being selected to the Pro Bowl. On the original ballot of course, not as an alternate.
Four Lions made the list.
St. Brown, based on the Proven Performance Escalator mentioned in Article 7, Section 4, and based on Over The Cap's estimates, could make nearly $1.7 million more to just a shade over $4.9 million in salary.
Over The Cap puts LaPorta's potential raise at $2.5 million.
Sewell, via the fifth-Year option article in the CBA, would be in line (according to Over The Cap) for a raise of about $3.7 million to $20.877 million.
Over the Cap tabs Hutchinson's potential pay raise, based on the same fifth-year option CBA article, at approximately $7.5-$10 million.
It's unlikely St. Brown, LaPorta, Sewell and Hutchinson will all make the original NFC Pro Bowl team and get their possible pay raises. But the numbers put out by Over The Cap means there is something a little extra at stake, as a quartet of young Lions' players have lined themselves up to be compensated better.