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The Pro Bowl has rapidly fallen out of favor to measure greatness. Perhaps this was always the case to some degree, as All-Pro nominations always carry more weight when assessing a player’s Hall of Fame résumé. At the same time, I think a first-time Pro Bowler is significant because it marks the year of a player’s arrival not just in the eyes of analysts who pore over the game, but in the general public and the players’ cohorts, meaning that the player has become so good that he has risen to unignorable.
As is tradition, my list of potential first-time Pro Bowlers cannot include rookies, and we’ll also try not to just load up the list with second-year players who were barely edged out of the now-defunct all-star game. Last year’s list was scattered with a few misses but featured hits like Christian Gonzalez, Cooper DeJean and, in my opinion, adequately reflected the looming breakout of Caleb Williams despite Williams somehow not making the Pro Bowl, even after an incredible season (in fairness to Williams, the NFC field was far more crowded than the AFC contingent that welcomed Shedeur Sanders into its ranks).
Anyway, enough back-patting and semantics. Let’s get to the 2026 first-time Pro Bowlers.
Carson Schwesinger, LB, Cleveland Browns
If you were to ask me to stake the contents of my children’s 529 fund on one player becoming a first-time Pro Bowler in 2026, it would be the Browns’ second-year linebacker. Schwesinger, the reigning Defensive Rookie of the Year, established himself as a top-five lock at the position after finishing eighth in the league in tackles, second in quarterback hits, eighth in run stops and sixth in interceptions among linebackers. His ball-hawking ability and all-around instincts will survive a coordinator change from Jim Schwartz to Mike Rutenberg (Schwesinger may even fare better under the new defensive coordinator, who spent significant time as a linebackers coach and helped elevate Kaden Elliss into an all-around game wrecker in Atlanta). Schwesinger is elite at pressuring interior gaps, and his play recognition is among the best in football for any player at any defensive position. Notice how Schwesinger never seems out of place, and in an era of frantic backfield motion, always appears steady and in position to make a tackle. Now that Myles Garrett is gone, Schwesinger will become the face of Cleveland’s defense for years to come.
Jordan Love, QB, Green Bay Packers
It is unbelievable to me that the only award under Love’s Wikipedia biography is a 2018 bid for second-team All-Mountain West. Love had a fantastic 2026 season marred by a team collapse down the stretch. Though Love was outside the top 12 in passing yards in 2025, he was sixth in quarterback rating and third in QBR. While this is a purely anecdotal observation, I find that a quarterback’s eventual ascension into the category of unquestioned greatness follows a season in which the data clearly illustrate as much without us taking appropriate notice. I’m sure Packers fans will point out that, in actuality, Love has been a top-10 quarterback across the board in most major categories—passing yards, passing touchdowns, passer rating, TD percentage, QBR and touchdown-to-interception ratio—since 2023. Love, like Caleb Williams, suffers from a pack of stalwarts from perennially popular teams who tend to get the nod by default, or at least get a disproportionate benefit of the doubt, such as Jalen Hurts. The Fall of Love™ is upon us.
Colston Loveland, TE, Chicago Bears
Loveland had two of his three best games in the final two weeks of the 2025 regular season, followed by 25 combined targets in two playoff games. With a majority of Chicago’s focus this offseason on shoring up the defense, I thought that part of Ben Johnson’s confidence in leaving the offense essentially static was more about a Loveland projection in 2026. Losing DJ Moore was also certainly a vote of confidence in Luther Burden III, but I see Loveland’s path to a Pro Bowl as a bit more direct than Burden’s, who would have to surpass wide receivers, such as Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, CeeDee Lamb and Puka Nacua. The NFC’s Pro Bowl tight ends last year were Trey McBride, George Kittle and Jake Ferguson. Loveland is sort of a hyperextension of Sean McVay’s and Kyle Shanahan’s quest to create the perfectly amoebic offense that plays like several different personnel groupings. We saw him capably catching passes out wide last year and even out of the backfield as a fullback (it wasn’t just Tyler Warren). Loveland impressed me the most, though, when watching his second-nature reaction to moments when Caleb Williams was scrambling or turning his back to the field. Loveland knew exactly where and when to break and caught a healthy number of additional balls simply due to his developing relationship with Williams.
Kevin Dotson, G, Los Angeles Rams
I am still surprised every time I look this up: Sean McVay, as a head coach, has had only one Pro Bowl offensive lineman. That was Andrew Whitworth, in McVay’s inaugural season. This is for a few reasons. In the NFC, it’s been nearly impossible for an offensive lineman to break through for almost the entirety of the past decade. The Cowboys and Eagles combined, along with Trent Williams and Penei Sewell, have created a kind of human blockade around the Pro Bowl. Still, that doesn’t change the fact that some of the best offensive line performances on a yearly basis come from the Rams. One can make a chicken-or-the-egg type argument here as to whether they are simply pawns for the greatest modern-era play-caller, or if the Rams, as the team does at wide receiver, have a knack for finding good offensive linemen below the radar. Alaric Jackson, for example, was an undrafted free agent. Had he not been facing a potential suspension at the start of the season, I would have considered him a 1A alongside Dotson, who missed some or all of the team’s final three regular-season games. The Rams came into those games as the best offense in the NFL in terms of EPA per play and in rush EPA. When Dotson was hurt, the Rams were 16th in EPA per rush. He’s not the sole factor but it’s an indication of how critical his presence was. Dotson has a difficult path to the Pro Bowl with the likes of Chris Lindstrom and Tyler Smith within the division, but it’s about time some of McVay’s linemen get the recognition they deserve.
Jalen Pitre, S/nickel, Houston Texans
Just like last year, the theme for voters on defense will continue: Everyone is going to want a piece of this Texans defense after the conclusion of the 2026 season. The Texans were outpacing the 1986 Bears (who allowed fewer points than the ’85 Bears that won the Super Bowl) in terms of points surrendered for about 30% of last season, which is stunning considering the advancements made to modern offensive schemes and a rulebook that has completely kowtowed to the fantasy football gods who need more touchdowns per game. Pitre is the glue that holds this secondary together, an ultra-physical defensive back who can blow up any play at any moment. And while I was happy to see Kamari Lassiter and Calen Bullock get their flowers a season ago by earning their first Pro Bowl nods, I was aghast at the fact that Pitre’s on-field genius took a back seat to his physicality. Maybe all the hard hits made people assume he was one-dimensional when, in fact, Pitre’s instincts were the catalyst for many of Houston’s turnovers. He can effectively direct the football into harm’s way better than so many other defensive backs out there.
Cam Little, K, Jacksonville Jaguars
Cameron Dicker represented the AFC last season, but Little’s candidacy feels like a matter of time. From a marketing perspective, he will likely attempt another 70-ish-yard field goal in the preseason and is the current record holder for the longest field goal in NFL history. With Brandon Aubrey safely in another conference and the Jaguars primed to produce another top-10 scoring offense, Little feels like the next kicker who, simply by virtue of name recognition, gets airmailed into the Pro Bowl every season. While I have nothing against Dicker, I give Little credit for having attempted nearly double the number of 50-plus-yard kicks as the Chargers’ kicker last year. To me, this means that he is more regularly trusted in high-difficulty situations and, by virtue of his leg talent, is more of a direct asset. This has been your special teams minute.
Omarion Hampton, RB, Los Angeles Chargers
Admittedly, this exercise contains a good bit of overthinking. We’re at the juncture of the preseason where we’ve launched our theories on a detective board wider and more complex than the search for the Zodiac Killer. This one is far less exceptional. I think we can all agree that Mike McDaniel’s arrival in Los Angeles means that the Chargers are going to run the football. I also think that McDaniel pushing for Keaton Mitchell is not necessarily a harbinger of Hampton’s declining role within the offense. Hampton caught almost 100% of his targets last year, and, at 13 touches per game, averaged nearly 4.5 yards per carry. Hampton also had more rushing yards over expectation than other feature backs—Saquon Barkley, for instance—who played more of a complete season. I would find it unimaginable that Jim Harbaugh, who drafted Hampton in 2025 to fit an identity he had hoped to create, would accept from McDaniel in a job interview that this player was now obsolete in the offense.
Caleb Williams, QB, Chicago Bears
Let’s finish up with the one holdover from last year’s list. The NFC fleet of quarterbacks feels a little more replaceable outside of Matthew Stafford and Dak Prescott. Jalen Hurts is entering a season in a declining offense without A.J. Brown and with his 987th offensive coordinator since high school. Sam Darnold would also have to recapture lightning in a bottle to maintain his Pro Bowl presence with a coordinator change in Seattle (where the Seahawks also lost their quarterbacks coach, Andrew Janocko, to the Raiders). There are two openings I’ve created to add Love and Williams to the roster, which would also be in the best interest of the NFL as it moves to position Green Bay and Chicago as its new chief NFL rivalry. Williams is now expected to have the season this year that Jayden Daniels was expected to have a year ago, which creates both perilous expectations and relentless hype. The difference, I think, is that Williams’s sack avoidance will remain an elite trait for at least another few seasons of his peak athleticism, which will allow him to buy time and capture more chunk-downfield plays. The Bears were already elite at this, ranking fifth in the league in explosiveness, with an offense that will only grow. It’s fair to point out that Chicago’s performance against elite opponents last season left some question marks on the table, though we should have an indication as to how this prediction is going after Week 3. Williams will face Ejiro Evero, Brian Flores and Vic Fangio in consecutive weeks—in my opinion, three of the top seven defensive coordinators in the NFL.
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CONOR ORR
Conor Orr is a Senior Writer for Sports Illustrated with more than 15 years of experience covering the NFL. His work has been cited in Best American Sportswriting and has won a PFWAA award. Prior to Sports Illustrated, he covered both the Giants and Jets for The Star-Ledger. Conor lives in New Jersey with his amazing wife and three children.
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