{"id":186815,"date":"2024-08-27T13:00:27","date_gmt":"2024-08-27T17:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=186815"},"modified":"2024-08-25T18:24:04","modified_gmt":"2024-08-25T22:24:04","slug":"3-indianapolis-colts-players-who-could-make-their-first-pro-bowl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/08\/27\/3-indianapolis-colts-players-who-could-make-their-first-pro-bowl\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Indianapolis Colts Players Who Could Make Their First Pro Bowl"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Which Indianapolis Colts players will make their Pro Bowl debuts this season? One thing\u2019s for sure: it won\u2019t be Quenton Nelson. The star guard out of Notre Dame has been named a Pro Bowler in each of his first six seasons in the NFL. Yes, that&#8217;s a pretty impressive accomplishment.<\/p>\n<p>It won\u2019t be <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/04\/18\/ryan-kelly-free-agent-contract-colts\/\" target=\"_self\">Ryan Kelly<\/a>, either. One of the league\u2019s top centers, he has made the Pro Bowl four times in his career thus far. Other Colts Pro-Bowlers include defensive tackle DeForest Buckner, running back <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/07\/06\/this-youngster-is-likely-to-be-the-colts-backup-running-back\/\" target=\"_self\">Jonathan Taylor<\/a>, and cornerback Kenny Moore II. Kicker Matt Gay also received the honor in 2021 as a member of the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/08\/25\/ernest-jones-trade-rams-ravens-panthers\/\" target=\"_self\">Los Angeles Rams<\/a>. Here are a few players who might represent Indy during the 2024 campaign.<\/p>\n<h2>3 Indianapolis Colts Players Who Could Make Their First Pro Bowl This Season<\/h2>\n<h3>Zaire Franklin<\/h3>\n<p>Colts general manager <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/04\/29\/how-chris-ballard-nailed-the-2024-nfl-draft\/\" target=\"_self\">Chris Ballard<\/a> is often criticized for not spending money on outside free agents. But he has made several brilliant draft decisions since he arrived in 2017. Selecting linebacker Zaire Franklin (seventh-round pick in 2018) was one of those choices.<\/p>\n<p>Franklin has been a staple of the Colts defense over the past two years. In 2022, the first season of a three-year extension, he set a new single-season franchise record with 167 total tackles. He was great once again last season, recording 170 combined tackles, good for second-best in the NFL.<\/p>\n<p>Franklin was a Pro Bowl snub in each of the past two seasons. But don\u2019t be surprised if things change in 2024 and he finally gets his recognition. He&#8217;s too good to go another year without getting selected.<\/p>\n<h3>Michael Pittman Jr.<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/08\/18\/chargers-ravens-alec-pierce\/\" target=\"_self\">Michael Pittman Jr.<\/a> was drafted by the Colts in the second round of the 2020 draft. It seems like he has played with a million different quarterbacks since joining the league. He has teamed up with seven starting QBs: Philip Rivers, Carson Wentz, Matt Ryan, Sam Ehlinger, Nick Foles, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/08\/07\/are-the-indianapolis-colts-the-biggest-sleeper-team-in-the-afc\/\" target=\"_self\">Anthony Richardson<\/a>, and Gardner Minshew. That&#8217;s quite a long list in just four years. Yet, that hasn\u2019t distracted him from becoming one of the league\u2019s top wide receivers.<\/p>\n<p>Last season was the best one of Pittman\u2019s career. The USC product caught 109 passes for 1,152 yards. Ballard and the Colts rewarded him this offseason with a <a  href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/indianapolis-colts-michael-pittman-contract-b608305789b061e9d3931fb550355550\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">$70 million contract<\/a>. Look for him to be even better in 2024 and make his first-ever Pro Bowl appearance.<\/p>\n<h3>Anthony Richardson<\/h3>\n<p>Wait a minute, did that subtitle read, \u201cAnthony Richardson?\u201d Is that the same Anthony Richardson who struggled during this year\u2019s preseason? Yes, we\u2019re talking about <em>that,<\/em> Anthony Richardson. Sure, the young quarterback looked a bit rusty in the preseason, but that doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019ll have a horrible regular season as well.<\/p>\n<p>Richardson only played four games as a rookie <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/news\/colts-qb-anthony-richardson-to-undergo-season-ending-shoulder-surgery\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">due to injury<\/a>. He showed flashes, though, of becoming a superstar in the brief time that he did play. If he can somehow stay healthy this year, he could emerge as a Comeback Player of the Year candidate with the Colts. And a Pro Bowl selection this season isn\u2019t impossible, either. Again, he must avoid the injury bug, which he failed to do in 2023.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main Image: Trevor Ruszkowski &#8211; USA Today Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here are three Indianapolis Colts players who might make the Pro Bowl for the first time during the 2024 season. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4890,"featured_media":186917,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,54],"tags":[9564,56,6056,32778],"class_list":["post-186815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colts","category-editorials","tag-anthony-richardson","tag-indianapolis-colts","tag-michael-pittman-jr","tag-zaire-franklin"],"modified_by":"Isaac Zuniga","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4890"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}