JACKSONVILLE – This is as cool as cool gets, individually speaking.

Ross Matiscik earned this honor, as evidenced by the votes of his peers and others who vote on such things. And this weekend will be about savoring the moment.

It's also a culmination – and a beginning.

"It's obviously a really decorated honor; I'm really excited," Matiscik said.

Matiscik, the Jaguars' fourth-year long snapper, will be one of three Jaguars players participating in the 2024 Pro Bowl Games in Orlando, Fla., Thursday through Sunday. It is the first Pro Bowl honor for Matiscik, who has emerged in recent seasons – particularly this past season – as the NFL's best player at his position.

"It's more about all the hard work I've put in over the years being noticed and recognized as a long snapper," Matiscik said. "A lot of that gets overlooked. So it's pretty cool to see it get recognized."

A reserve linebacker and long snapper at Baylor University who signed with the Jaguars as a collegiate free agent after the 2020 NFL Draft, Matiscik was announced for the '24 Pro Bowl on the Wednesday before the Jaguars' regular-season finale against the Tennessee Titans January 7.

The Titans' long snapper is Morgan Cox, a 14-year NFL veteran who made four Pro Bowls with the Baltimore Ravens (2015-2016, 2019-2020) and one with the Titans following the 2022 season.

"He's kind of the [Michael] Jordan of long snapping," Matiscik said.

Cox's greeting to Matiscik that day? Two hands … up and down, up and down …

We're-not-worthy.

"He's just one of the best in the league, year in year out," Matiscik said. "He was just messing with me. But that was pretty funny. I got a good laugh out of it."

Matiscik added, "It's pretty cool to get voted in over someone like that. The guys in this league that do it are so good. You get the nod over them, they're the ones that voted on it and it's pretty cool. It's a lot of respect and I really appreciate that from them."

Matisick after being voted to the Pro Bowl also received first-team Associated Press All-Pro and first-team NFL Players Association All-Pro honors. The second honor had special meaning because only specialists can vote for other specialists.

"You're only allowed to vote for those people," Matiscik said. "Coming from them, the guys that you're like closest with and the guys that you respect the most, it's pretty cool."

Along with blocking, Matiscik said downfield tackling was among his focuses in 2023 – and he credited Jaguars safety/special teams ace Andrew Wingard along with punter Logan Cooke ace for assisting in his development.

"It almost kind of slowed down a little bit for me this year," he said. "I tip my cap a lot to Dewey and Logan. Logan is one of the best punters in the league. He makes the job easy when he can put them in the corners and put it on the sideline and not hit it down the middle of the field and give those returners all the room to work with.

"Dewey's one of my best friends. We're always picking each other's brain about coverage. 'If it's over there, what would you do? What are you thinking?' That helped me a lot making tackles in open space. He's one of the best too, if you watch him make tackles. He's so consistent and clean. I was trying to add his game to mine."

Matiscik, whose 12 solo tackles over the last three seasons lead all NFL long snappers during that span, led NFL long snappers with eight solo tackles in 2023.

He also during a Week 11 victory over the Tennessee Titans became the first long snapper since 2005 to record a forced fumble and fumble recovery in the same game. He registered that on the same play in the fourth quarter of a 34-14 victory over the Tennessee Titans in Jacksonville on November 19. 👀⬇️

"It's not something that happens overnight," Matiscik said of the Pro Bowl. "I think if you ask any long snapper, they'll tell you it was years and years in the making, just perfecting their craft and getting to a point where they they trust their ability and they're kind of able to do it with their eyes closed.

"It's not overnight success by any means, but it's definitely cool when stuff like this happens."

And while Matiscik said his goal is to have career longevity of a player such as the 37-year-old Cox, his short-term goals are more immediate.

"I would say the next step is just not getting complacent," he said. "A lot of people probably get this honor, kind of run with it and get complacent. I would say the goal is to just keep getting better and then most of all, enjoy the moment.

"Everyone says, 'Oh, you're a long snapper, you're going to play 15 years. You hear that and you're like, 'They don't see the work that goes in to get to those 15 years.' For me, I don't take any of it for granted. If I get one of those high numbers, that would be awesome, but if not, then, you know, I'm going to enjoy every moment.

"I'm going to work every day to earn that spot on the team next year and I'm sure going to enjoy the weekend coming up."