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Which NFL players could make the Pro Bowl for the first time in 2025? Kevin Patra spotlights one candidate from each AFC team below. (Click here for the NFC selections.)
Many rookie corners get dragged around the gridiron. Not Wiggins. Like any cover man, he experienced ups and downs in his debut season, but he showed the physicality and ball skills to grow into an elite outside corner. His performance portends a breakout Year 2. Wiggins generated a -28.4 target EPA — tops among every single corner in the NFL last season, per Next Gen Stats — while allowing a 47.8% completion rate (third-best in the league among CBs targeted 50-plus times) and -4.5 receptions over expected (fifth). His -0.42 EPA per target ranked third, one tick behind 2024 Defensive Player of the Year Patrick Surtain II (-0.43). Wiggins also allowed zero touchdowns in coverage. He’ll need to grab a few more picks to earn a Pro Bowl spot, but then again, he’s in an even better position to shine in 2025, playing next to Marlon Humphrey and new teammate Jaire Alexander .
Rousseau could pay off the $20 million-per-year contract extension he signed in March with his first Pro Bowl nod. Last season, the Miami product matched a career high with eight sacks while continuing to show improved pass-rush skills. According to Next Gen Stats, he’s upped his total QB pressures every year, going from 27 in 2021 to 32 in 2022, 47 in 2023 and 59 last year. His 13.8% pressure rate also marked a career high. The addition of Joey Bosa on the opposite side could work to free up more favorable matchups for Rousseau to exploit in 2025. The Bills have lacked a potent pairing since Von Miller ‘s production spiraled following his 2022 knee injury. Rousseau is in a place — in terms of talent, experience and, possibly, his new pass-rushing partner — to put up his best campaign yet in Buffalo.
