The New Orleans Saints will be represented at the 2025 Pro Bowl Games after all, with Erik McCoy selected as an alternate.
The Saints center was named to the game as an alternate replacement for Eagles center Cam Jurgens, who will be headed to New Orleans to participate in Super Bowl 59.
The honor marks the second consecutive season that McCoy, 27, will appear at the games, last year being selected outright. The decision underscores the respect McCoy commands across the league, considering he had an injury-plagued 2024 season that was limited to just seven starts. He exited early in two of those games with significant groin and elbow injuries, both costing the veteran multiple games.
McCoy has been the Saints' entrenched starting center since the team traded up to draft him at No. 48 overall in 2019, having started 81 regular season games and three in the postseason. Despite appearing in just seven games, he was active for three of the Saints' top four rushing outputs in the 2024 season, with the team finishing 5-12.
Saints special teams ace J.T. Gray was the Saints' biggest argument for a Pro Bowl snub, though he was named as a second team All Pro.
The Pro Bowl is in the third year of its current format, which eschews the traditional game for a series of contests that include dodgeball and other skills challenges before a flag football game at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida. That game will be held on Sunday, Feb. 2 from 2 to 5 p.m.
