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Despite being one of the best guards in football and earning first-team All-Pro recognition from the Associated Press in 2024, Denver Broncos lineman Quinn Meinerz was not voted to the Pro Bowl.
Earlier this month, Broncos coach Sean Payton suggested there would be a positive long-term outlook for Meinerz after the Pro Bowl snub.
“Here’s what happens: I’ve told Quinn this,” Payton said on Jan. 3. “I said the same thing to Jahri Evans. Jahri’s up for the Hall of Fame this year, he’s a finalist. [He was] an elite guard — elite — and he didn’t make it Year 2 — I’m not sure what year it was.
“I called him in, and I said, ‘You’re going to get slighted a year or two in the early part of your career, and then you’re going to have two that you really shouldn’t have gotten in that you get on the back end.’ The same thing will happen with Quinn.”
Evans went on to earn five All-Pro nods and six Pro Bowl selections during his time with the New Orleans Saints. A Super Bowl champion and a member of the NFL’s 2010s All-Decade Team, Evans is now a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Meinerz is a first-alternate for this year’s Pro Bowl, and he’s still only 26 years old. Payton believes the guard will have a long career ahead of him with many Pro Bowl selections in the future.