Buffalo Bills: Jairus Byrd Joins The Pro Bowl

By Adam Pfeifer
Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports

Although the Buffalo Bills missed out on the playoffs for the 14th straight year – which is the longest drought in football – they did receive a bit of good news.

After the Baltimore Ravens won the AFC Championship game on Sunday night, future Hall of Fame safety Ed Reed immediately became ineligible to participate in the 2013 Pro Bowl. Seeing as he will be playing in his first ever Super Bowl, I’m sure he won’t mind.

So, where does the good news for Buffalo come in?

Well, Bills free safety Jairus Byrd will be taking Reed’s place, making it his first Pro Bowl honor in his short career. Byrd is thankful and looks forward to heading to Hawaii.

“I’m just really excited and I thank God for the opportunity,” Byrd said. “It’ll be really special to join my teammates C.J. [Spiller] and Kyle [Williams] in Hawaii. I’m looking forward to playing in the game and the entire experience because I didn’t get a chance to do so in my rookie year. It’ll be fun to experience the Pro Bowl for the first time.”

Honestly, Byrd should have been in the Pro Bowl from the get-go. No disrespect to Reed, who is arguably the greatest free safety of all time, but Byrd had a better statistical year. Byrd had 18 more tackles, one more interception and four more forced fumbles than Reed. But hey, like I said, Reed will be happy playing for the Lombardi two weeks from now.

Congratulations to Byrd, however. This emerging superstar in the secondary is certainly deserving of the honor.

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