Pro Bowl rosters were announced today, so let’s go through them position-by-position, starting with the NFC. Click here for a breakdown of the AFC roster.
NFC Offense
QB – Brett Favre (Green Bay), Matt Hasselbeck (Seattle), Tony Romo (Dallas)
No qualms here as Brees has too many interceptions on an average team and Garcia doesn’t have the numbers.
RB – Adrian Peterson (Minnesota), Marion Barber (Dallas), Brian Westbrook (Philadelphia)
Tampa Bay’s Earnest Graham probably should be in over Barber considering he was the workhorse behind the Buccaneer’s division win and put up virtually identical numbers (with the exception of yards per carry) as Barber.
FB – Tony Richardson (Minnesota)
Considering the Vikings have far and away the best running game in the league, this is a no-brainer.
WR – Terrell Owens (Dallas), Larry Fitzgerald (Arizona), Donald Driver (Green Bay), Torry Holt (St. Louis)
Greg Jennings should be on the team instead of Driver. Driver has only two touchdowns, while Jennings is second in the NFC with twelve. Plaxico Burress has been playing with an injured ankle all year, and Marques Colston has been putting up excellent numbers. One of them should be on ahead of Torry Holt, whose team although plagued by injury has underperformed.
TE – Jason Witten (Dallas), Chris Cooley (Washington)
Two easy selections.
OT – Flozell Adams (Dallas), Walter Jones (Seattle), Chris Samuels (Washington)
Bryant McKinnie should be a pro-bowler, probably replacing Walter Jones whose Seahawks team cannot run the ball at all.
OG – Leonard Davis (Dallas), Steve Hutchinson (Minnesota), Shawn Andrews (Philadelphia)
All deserving selections.
C – Andre Gurode (Dallas), Matt Birk (Minnesota)
Offensive linemen are always the most difficult selections to make, primarily because there are no official statistics to compare players against each other. You can roughly compare their teams overall offensive performance, but you basically just have to watch these guys closely in-game to see who is the best.
NFC Defense
DE – Aaron Kampman (Green Bay), Patrick Kerney (Seattle), Osi Umenyiora (New York Giants)
Umenyiora’s numbers are inflated by his tremendous six sack game against the Eagles. Trent Cole of the Philadelphia Eagles has slightly better numbers, and has been more consistent than Umenyiora.
DT – Kevin Williams (Minnesota), Pat Williams (Minnesota), Tommie Harris (Chicago)
As good as Minnesota’s stingy run defense has been, Darnell Dockett has had a great year for the Arizona Cardinals and might be more deserving than one of the two Williams (probably Kevin, in spite of his two interceptions returned for touchdowns).
OLB – Julian Peterson (Seattle), DeMarcus Ware (Dallas), Lance Briggs (Chicago)
Ernie Sims of the Detroit Lions needs to be on this team. Take Briggs off as neither he nor Brian Urlacher have played all that well this season.
ILB – Lofa Tatupu (Seattle), Patrick Willis (San Francisco)
Both are good selections although Nick Barnett of Green Bay might have an argument against Tatupu.
CB – Al Harris (Green Bay), Marcus Trufant (Seattle), Terence Newman (Dallas)
Can’t complain much with these choices.
FS – Sean Taylor (Washington), Ken Hamlin (Dallas)
Oshiomogho Atogwe on St. Louis deserves the nod over Hamlin based on the numbers he has put up.
SS – Darren Sharper (Minnesota)
Although Sharper has played well, Jermaine Phillips of Tampa Bay should be starting.
NFC Special Teams
P – Andy Lee (San Francisco)
Pretty straightforward pick based on average.
K – Nick Folk (Dallas)
Robbie Gould of Chicago has a higher percentage with more attempts and should be starting.
KR – Devin Hester (Chicago)
Duh.
ST – Brendon Ayanbadejo (Chicago)
Does it really matter?
We’ll dissect the AFC Rosters next.
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January 22, 2008 at 3:31 pm
[...] Pro Bowl Rosters Part I [...]