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ShareThis90% of the All-Decade Team
There's one year left in the decade of the '00s, but that didn't stop ESPN from naming its All-decade offensive and defensive teams. It is obvious that we should wait for the 2009 season to unfold before we name the All-Decade team of the '00s. But that doesn't mean we can't take a sneak peak at what the eventual team should look like.
I'll mostly be using Doug's approximate value system, with of course only the years from 2000-2008 included. I'll give each player 100% credit for their best season of this nine-year decade, 95% credit for their second best season, 90% for their third best, and so on. For each position, in addition to the approximate value grades for the candidates, we'll list the number of pro bowls each player made, his numbers of games and games started, total seasons as a starter, awards (consisting of the AP's Defensive Player of the Year, Offensive Player of the Year, Most Valuable Player, Super Bowl MVP, Offensive Rookie of the Year and Defensive Rookie of the Year), and first team and second team all pro honors. For QB, RB and WR, I'll also use the systems I used in the "greatest ever" series for each of those positions. Let's get started.
Quarterback
AV PB G GS SEA awards AP1 AP2 ANY/A PLAYER 129 8 144 144 9 4.5 4 2 8741 Peyton Manning 92 4 113 111 7 4 1 1 4358 Tom Brady 86 3 96 95 5 0 0 0 4039 Daunte Culpepper 81 4 111 106 7 0 0 0 4031 Jeff Garcia 87 2 104 99 6 0 0 0 4019 Trent Green 83 3 107 106 7 1 1 1 4001 Drew Brees 94 5 122 122 9 0 0 0 3888 Donovan McNabb 73 3 93 85 6 1 1 0 3836 Kurt Warner 92 5 144 144 9 0 0 3 3119 Brett Favre 69 3 105 104 7 0.5 0 1 2962 Steve McNair 57 3 58 58 3 1 2 0 2934 Rich Gannon
The ANY/A number is the QB's value derived from the formula in the Greatest QB of all time series. There's nothing new that can be gleamed from a Manning-Brady debate, so let's just say Manning has the numbers and Brady has the rings. Moving on, Manning's got 4.5 awards (2.5 MVPs, 1 OPOY and 1 SBMVP) while Brady has 4 awards (2 SBMVPs, 1 MVP, 1 OPOY). No one touches Manning when it comes to ANY/A, my preferred way of ranking the QBs. But he also is #1 by a mile in AV, Pro Bowls, and first or second team All Pro honors. For all the accolades Brady receives (ESPN also named him their player of the decade), I was surprised to see he was only named 1st or 2nd team all pro twice in the decade. Even if you view Manning and Brady as equals, Manning's played two more seasons than Brady this decade, something that should tip the scale in Manning's favor for most observers.
As for the second team QB, Brady is the clear choice. He wins in ANY/A, and he also has the hardware. Favre and McNabb have been very good for most of the decade, and have the AV, Pro Bowls and starts to prove it. But neither fare particularly well when it comes to ANY/A. With another good season, Brees should jump into second place in adjusted net yards added over average.
First team All-Decade QB: Peyton Manning
Second team All-Decade QB: Tom Brady
Running Backs
Let's just get it out of the way -- LT is the top running back of the decade. But we've got three more RBs to select and we're going to need some help. The far right column lists the running back value score, representing the score each RB received using the most dominant RB ever formula.
AV PB G GS SEA awards AP1 AP2 RB VAL PLAYER 115 5 127 127 8 2 3 3 4222 LaDainian Tomlinson 74 3 81 65 4 1 3 0 2937 Priest Holmes 67 3 83 64 5 3 2 0 2520 Marshall Faulk 69 3 123 96 7 2 1 1 2422 Shaun Alexander 90 3 110 98 7 0 1 0 2399 Tiki Barber 69 2 100 95 6 1 0 1 1923 Clinton Portis 98 3 125 119 8 0 0 2 1899 Edgerrin James 65 2 99 78 6 0 1 0 1678 Brian Westbrook 79 4 110 97 6 0 0 1 1622 Ahman Green 50 2 68 48 4 0 1 1 1544 Larry Johnson 68 1 122 119 8 1 1 0 1333 Jamal Lewis 59 2 92 92 6 0 1 1 1319 Curtis Martin 60 1 87 65 4 0 1 0 1208 Ricky Williams 46 1 69 57 4 0 0 1 1179 Steven Jackson 73 1 115 115 8 0 0 1 1125 Fred Taylor 53 3 104 96 6 0 0 0 1041 Corey Dillon 23 2 30 24 2 1 1 1 975 Adrian Peterson
Except for perhaps tight end and outside linebacker, no other all-decade position has as large a disparity between #1 and #2. LT leads all running backs in RB value, AV, Pro Bowls, games, starts, seasons starting, first team all pro honors and second team all pro honors. Only Marshall Faulk prevents a clean sweep, as Faulk's two AP player of the year awards and 1 MVP trophy top Tomlinson, who has "just" one of each. After LT, though, there are lots of RBs with good cases to make:
- Faulk and Holmes were the most dominant, with Holmes having three first-team all pro nominations and Faulk having the two OPOY awards. They join Tomlinson in the top three for running back dominance over the past nine seasons.
- AV likes Edge and Barber next, but the hardware says Shaun Alexander. And who would have guessed that Ahman Green made more Pro Bowls this decade than any RB besides LT?
- Fred Taylor, Warrick Dunn, Corey Dillon, Clinton Portis and Jamal Lewis have all been consistently good for long stretches of the decade. Each has at least a 4.2 YPC average and 7500 rushing yards since the start of 2000.
I don't feel particularly comfortable naming Faulk to the first team, because he was a stud for just two seasons -- '00 and '01. Holmes' peak lasted a little longer; he had three and a half big years. Barber was better for even longer, but his peak was less impressive and he had fumbling issues in several of those seasons. James was terrific in 2000, and had some good but not great post-ACL years in Indianapolis. He's been piling up the AV because he's hung around as a starter, but I don't know if that's enough to make this team. With a monster season this year, All Day Peterson might have an argument by the real end of the decade. Shaun Alexander never seemed to garner respect for his great numbers, probably because he was playing with Jones and Hutchinson (more on them, later) against some bad NFC West defenses. But his numbers are tough to ignore.
I'm going to play the dominance card here, and stick with what the numbers tell me. Thirty years from now, I want people to remember how awesome Priest Holmes was for three and a half seasons, and not how Edgerrin James wasn't too bad for nine seasons. People tend to remember Holmes as a "system back", but I'm not sure he played in more favorable situations than Faulk, Alexander, Portis (Denver) or James (Indy).
First team All-Decade RBs: LaDainian Tomlinson and Priest Holmes
Faulk didn't make the All-Decade team of the '90s, and it seems odd that an arguable top five RB of all time won't make any all decade team. Let's throw him on to the second team, on the basis of his two OPOY awards. That leaves James, Barber and Alexander, who will continue this battle when Canton only takes one or two of them. I'm partial to Barber because I felt he produced with the least around him -- he didn't have Manning/Glenn/Saturday, and he didn't have Hasselbeck/Jones/Hutchinson. He was very good for a very long time, and he has the best yards per carry average of any running back this decade.
Second team All-Decade RBs: Marshall Faulk and Tiki Barber
Head nod to the fullbacks, even though we don't need to name one.
AV PB G GS SEA awards AP1 AP2 PLAYER 31 3 131 95 8 0 0 2 Tony Richardson 27 1 75 59 4 0 0 0 Richie Anderson 25 3 95 74 5 0 0 0 Mike Alstott 23 2 117 79 7 0 1 0 Mack Strong 23 4 141 87 7 0 2 1 Lorenzo Neal 23 1 109 63 6 0 1 0 William Henderson 23 0 141 89 6 0 0 0 Brad Hoover 18 1 85 69 6 0 0 2 Fred Beasley 18 1 100 45 4 0 0 0 Mike Sellers 18 0 102 67 7 0 0 0 Cory Schlesinger 18 0 83 62 5 0 0 0 Justin Griffith
I'll just state the obvious: if you want a blocking fullback, take Neal. If you want a pass catching fullback, take Anderson. If you want an all around fullback, take Richardson. If you want a half back that lines up at fullback, take Alstott.
Wide Receivers
If you think naming the running backs was difficult, try fitting a piece of paper between Moss/Harrison/Owens. I ranked them 3-4-5 on the career list when I analyzed the greatest WRs of all time, which means one way or another, we're going to be leaving an all-time great off the first team. Of course, all had some big years in the '90s, but their success in the '00s is equally, uh, equal:
AV PB G GS SEA awards AP1 AP2 WR VAL PLAYER 96 6 127 125 8 0 5 0 5952 Terrell Owens 99 7 130 130 8 0 2 5 5614 Marvin Harrison 92 4 138 137 9 0 3 0 5119 Randy Moss 92 7 142 132 9 0 1 1 5038 Torry Holt 67 4 106 85 6 0 2 1 4211 Steve Smith 73 4 138 136 9 1 0 3 4197 Hines Ward 76 5 121 105 7 0 2 1 3884 Chad Johnson 72 2 141 135 9 0 1 0 3495 Derrick Mason 71 3 110 109 7 0 0 1 3491 Rod Smith 53 3 86 86 6 0 1 1 3340 Andre Johnson 63 4 114 112 8 0 0 0 3324 Joe Horn 48 3 80 77 6 1 0 0 3040 Anquan Boldin 85 3 125 112 8 0 0 1 2940 Reggie Wayne 64 1 137 122 8 0 0 0 2732 Laveranues Coles 61 1 135 134 9 0 1 0 2645 Muhsin Muhammad 66 0 128 121 9 0 0 0 2554 Plaxico Burress 46 3 76 76 5 0 1 0 2526 Larry Fitzgerald 54 2 124 115 8 0 0 1 2333 Eric Moulds 72 2 136 130 9 0 0 0 2204 Isaac Bruce
AV views the great trio as roughly equal, but Owens does have an edge over Moss in both my WR ranking system and in all pro honors. Harrison made 7 Pro Bowls and was named first or second team all pro seven times. Moss actually played more games and more seasons than the other two, but that's about it.
Still, doesn't it feel weird to not have Randy Moss on the All-Decade team? He's not far behind either Harrison or Owens, and he should make up some ground in 2009. If you check the raw numbers, Moss, Harrison and Owens are almost dead even in receiving yards, but Owens and Moss top Harrison by 14 and 12 receiving touchdowns, respectively. But perhaps a more telling table would be this:
QB Games Perc Harrison Peyton Manning 130 100% Owens Jeff Garcia 56 44% Tony Romo 41 32% Donovan McNabb 21 17% Drew Bledsoe 6 5% Tim Rattay 3 2% Moss Daunte Culpepper 70 51% Tom Brady 17 12% Matt Cassel 15 11% Kerry Collins 15 11% Andrew Walter 7 5% Aaron Brooks 6 4% Todd Bouman 3 2% Gus Frerotte 2 1% Spergon Wynn 2 1% Marques Tuiasosopo 1 1%
Even if you love Daunte Culpepper -- and I do -- that still leaves over a third of Moss' games this decade being played without Culpepper or Brady. Owens has played with a bunch of QBs, but they're all pretty good. It's just as true, however, that those QBs were at their best when playing with Owens. What is clear is that Harrison has had the most favorable QB situation and Moss the least favorable, and I'm willing to vault Moss ahead of Harrison because of that. We don't know how good Harrison would have been without Peyton Manning, but we can reasonably assume he wouldn't be as good.
Who will our 4th WR be? Torry Holt is the obvious candidate. He has 11,872 receiving yards in the nine-year decade, which isn't just impressive. It's amazing. Only Harrison and Jerry Rice have ever had as many receiving yards in a nine year span.
If Steve Smith has a huge 2009 -- and I mean a huge year even for him -- he might be able to bump Holt off of the second team. But for now, that spot is all locked up.
First team All-Decade WRs: Terrell Owens and Randy Moss
Second team All-Decade WRs: Marvin Harrison and Torry Holt
Tight End:
Finally, a breather. At least at the first team level.
AV PB G GS SEA awards AP1 AP2 PLAYER 87 9 143 143 9 0 4 4 Tony Gonzalez 68 5 93 89 6 0 3 0 Antonio Gates 55 4 95 93 7 0 1 0 Jeremy Shockey 53 5 95 85 5 0 1 1 Jason Witten 52 4 123 108 8 0 0 0 Alge Crumpler 47 0 82 79 6 0 0 0 Dallas Clark 44 2 104 99 6 0 0 1 Todd Heap 43 0 120 102 7 0 0 0 Marcus Pollard 38 3 122 98 6 0 0 0 Bubba Franks
AV does not do a terrific job measuring tight ends, who are hybrid wide receivers/tackles. But it's obvious that Tony Gonzalez is the best tight end of the decade, and one of the greatest tight ends to ever play the game. What about the 2nd TE?
- With a great season, either Gates or Witten can steal this spot. Right now their resumes are very similar, except Gates has the big edge in touchdowns and first team all pro honors.
- Gonzalez has played an incredible 143 games this decade. Only one other TE has played over 120 games. Would you have guessed it was Reggie Kelly?
- In a similar vein, guys like Bubba Franks, Anthony Becht, Kyle Brady, Jim Kleinsasser and Daniel Graham have been terrific blockers. But it's tough to rank blocking tight ends, and I don't think we can argue that a true blocking tight end has been more valuable than Gates.
First team All-Decade TE: Tony Gonzalez
Second team All-Decade TE: Antonio Gates
Offensive Tackles:
This is a three horse race that, in some ways, is even harder to crack than the wide receiver dilemma. With offensive linemen, we just don't have much to go on.
AV PB G GS SEA awards AP1 AP2 PLAYER 84 8 136 136 9 0 4 2 Walter Jones 80 6 113 113 8 0 2 1 Orlando Pace 76 8 116 115 8 0 3 3 Jonathan Ogden 72 4 133 128 8 0 3 1 Willie Anderson 67 2 113 111 7 0 1 0 Matt Light 67 3 106 106 7 0 0 0 Tarik Glenn 63 5 81 81 5 0 1 4 Willie Roaf 62 5 134 134 8 0 0 0 Flozell Adams 62 3 134 134 9 0 0 1 Tra Thomas 60 6 136 136 9 0 0 0 Chris Samuels 59 1 144 144 9 0 0 0 Jon Runyan
You might recall that AV incorporates the Jonathan Ogden rule, which requires all first team tackles to get a bunch of AV points even if they play on terrible offenses. Even still, Ogden comes in behind Jones and Pace, the other highly decorated tackles of this era. Willie Anderson comes in with a surprising three first-team all pro nominations, although three other tackles with less distinction made more Pro Bowls.
Jones appears to be the class of the tackle list, if based on nothing more than games played. Separating out Jones/Pace/Ogden is almost impossible for someone to do without a lot of time and film to study. But I don't know how anyone could argue against Jones, who is either tied or leading in AV, Pro Bowls, seasons starting, first team AP nominations and total all pro nominations.
What about Ogden/Pace? They're interesting because they're so different. Ogden has played on some awful offenses; Pace has played on some terrific offenses. AV sees this and thinks that Pace has helped make some offenses awesome, while Ogden has just been the star of bad offenses. No one would argue that Pace doesn't deserve a lot of credit for The Greatest Show on Turf; but who knows how the players would have done if their situations were reversed? In some ways, it's the old Emmitt Smith/Barry Sanders debate.
Without more data, I'm just going to say that Ogden's six first/second team all pro honors beats Pace's three.
Who should be our four offensive tackle? Roaf, Anderson, Samuels and Adams stand out due to their Pro Bowls, but this is a two-horse race of Willies. Roaf has had the better career, but Anderson was better during the '00s.
First team All-Decade OTs: Walter Jones and Jonathan Ogden
Second team All-Decade OTs: Orlando Pace and Willie Anderson
Guards
AV PB G GS SEA awards AP1 AP2 PLAYER 81 8 143 143 9 0 6 2 Alan Faneca 66 7 112 112 7 0 2 3 Will Shields 65 6 116 116 7 0 4 2 Steve Hutchinson 56 4 132 118 8 0 2 0 Brian Waters 52 2 123 123 8 0 0 1 Leonard Davis 51 6 112 112 7 0 2 0 Larry Allen 48 0 141 141 9 0 0 0 Mike Goff 47 3 110 110 7 0 0 1 Marco Rivera 46 1 109 108 7 0 0 1 Adam Timmerman 45 5 108 108 8 0 0 2 Ruben Brown
Alan Faneca is an obvious choice as the best guard of the decade; 8 Pro Bowls (and counting) leads all guards, as do his 143 starts and six first team all pro nominations. It's an interesting debate between Will Shields and Steve Hutchinson for the other spot, but there's a very good chance Hutchinson's looking at 7 Pro Bowls and 5 first team all pro honors by the end of this decade.
Should we have a pair of Chiefs on the second team? Larry Allen is a future HOFer, but he made the All-Decade team of the '90s -- I don't think he has been good enough for long enough to make the '00 All-Decade team. Brian Waters made the Pro Bowl last season, and if he can get another one next season, that should guarantee his spot on the team. As it stands, I still think he's the best option available.
First team All-Decade Gs: Alan Faneca and Steve Hutchinson
Second team All-Decade Gs: Will Shields and Brian Waters
Center
We're going to close today with a very interesting position. Five guys can make legitimate arguments to being the first team all-decade center:
AV PB G GS SEA awards AP1 AP2 PLAYER 76 3 138 138 9 0 2 1 Jeff Saturday 63 6 131 131 8 0 2 3 Kevin Mawae 57 6 124 123 8 0 0 1 Matt Birk 57 6 134 134 8 0 1 1 Olin Kreutz 55 2 108 108 6 0 2 0 Tom Nalen 49 1 143 137 9 0 0 0 Casey Wiegmann 45 0 129 129 9 0 0 0 Brad Meester 45 2 107 105 7 0 1 1 Jeff Hartings 43 1 88 87 6 0 0 1 Dan Koppen 43 1 129 113 7 0 0 1 Shaun O'Hara 43 0 124 111 6 0 0 0 Andy McCollum 41 0 137 134 9 0 0 0 Todd McClure
- Jeff Saturday's best argument? AV, baby! Saturday had the vision to be born in 1975, meaning his prime 10 football years would come in this decade. He's started the most games of any center in the '00s, and he's been one of three staples on the most consistent offense of the decade. He also received Gregg Easterbrook's Tuesday Morning Quarterback Non-QB Non-RB NFL MVP Award in 2006.
- Kevin Mawae has been a dominant center all decade, bookended by first team all pro honors in 2001 and in 2008. His three second team all pro nominations give him five pieces of such distinction; no other center has more than three.
- Matt Birk went to Harvard. As a sportswriter discussing him, I'm contractually obligated to say that. He missed the '05 season due to a hip injury, otherwise he very likely would lead all centers with seven Pro Bowls. He blocked for an incredible passing offense early in the decade and an incredible rushing offense later in the decade. He was pretty smart to team up with Randy Moss and Adrian Peterson. With a big first season in Baltimore, he might be able to make this team by the real end of the decade.
- Olin Kreutz was ESPN's choice as the top center of the decade. With six Pro Bowls and 134 starts, he's been a constant force on an otherwise bad offense. AV doesn't love Kreutz because of all the bad QBs he's had to snap to, but Bears fans know how lucky they've been.
- Tom Nalen would probably be the choice if the decade spanned from '96 to '05. He won two Super Bowls then and was the driving force behind an incredible offense. Still, his work this decade has been pretty good: his two first team All Pros are tied for the lead, and he helped block for several different 1,000 yard rushers. Perhaps as impressively, he helped get Jake Plummer to the AFC Championship game.
I left Edgerrin James off the all-decade team entirely, and Harrison was the odd receiver out on our first team offense. Let's tip our caps to that great Colts offense, and admit that it's not all Peyton Manning back there.
First team All-Decade C: Jeff Saturday
Second team All-Decade C: Kevin Mawae
All-decade defensive selections to come tomorrow.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 at 7:25 am and is filed under Approximate Value, Best/Worst Ever. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
How could you not at least mention Torry Holt on the WR list? He has appeared in more games than Moss, Owens or Harrison and has 7 pro bowls which is more than Owens or Moss and the same as Harrison. He has more receiving yards and receptions than any other wide receiver since 2000. You can certainly argue that Moss/Owens/Harrison were better but to not at least acknowledge Holt is a major omission.
He put Torry Holt on the 2nd team. Read it again.
This is the only time you'll ever see "All-Decade Team" and Spergon Wynn in the same place...
Nice to see Garcia so highly ranked. 5 teams in 9 years and he did well everywhere but Detroit. 3 years with under 2% interception rate, 5 years with over 6 ANY/A... Manning he's not, but I never quite understood why he keeps getting shuffled around the league and has trouble holding down a starting spot. He's certainly better than a lot of starters around the league.
I did see that, I meant with regards to the first team. Holt was just sort of placed on the second team with out explanation why he didn't deserve to be on the first team.
I am absolutely shocked. This is the first time I've ever agreed with every single decision on one of these things.
Because Holt has rather pedestrian TD numbers despite having Warner throw to him those first two seasons, and Bulger put up top 5 QB numbers until 2006(discounting the fact that he missed more games than Schuab). ESPN just seemed to go controversial when it came to the skill positions. Obviously, you can't pick anyone over LT, but Harrison and Holt over Owens and Moss was just bold.
As for Holt, I probably should have given him more consideration. The fact that he did not have great TD numbers *and* played in a pass heavy offense are both included in his WR VAL score.
He's very close to Moss, and not too far behind Harrison. The problem is, I'm not sure what I would use to bump him up. He's not in the top two in WR VAL, or in AV, or in 1st team All Pros, or in combined All-Pros. He's in the top 2 in games/seasons/Pro Bowls, but those are not the big categories. And he's probably had better QB play than Owens, and certainly has had better QB play than Moss. So while he's very, very close, I don't think there's a great argument to be made (unless you look exclusively at yards) to bump him up.
The random endpoints of an all decade team kind of suck. If you extend the decade back to 1999 or 1998, then Torry Holt and Marshall Faulk would probably deserve to be first teamers. (I still think of Faulk as the scariest RB of the past 15 or so years.)
But because they didn't have the foresight to begin their careers in 2000 they are penalized. And if a player doesn't play at his peak deep enough into the 2000's, then he won't have enough career value in either decade to be consider one of that decade's great players.
For sure, Richie. All-decade teams are certainly arbitrary and pointless in a lot of ways.
I hope that didn't come out as a knock on your post. That wasn't my intent. I enjoyed the analysis, just frustrated the way some players are forced to be excluded.
I think I'd take Shields over Faneca (who I think is very good but not quite as good as he's generally seen to be). That's the only change I'd make to the first team. On the second team, I'd take Portis or Westbrook over Barber - how those two have only been to two pro-bowls each is a mystery to me. I'd also probably go with Roaf over Anderson - I tend to weight peak performance more heavily than accumulation, and Roaf's peak was higher.
When those are the only quibbles I have, that's pretty much an indication I think it's a great piece.
Gates and Gonzalez are practically receivers. Witten is a better blocker and all around TE who's been screwed out of at least a couple of first team All Pro selections.
I wouldn't have a problem with Harrison beating out Moss for the All Decade Team. In fact I'd prefer it. There's a reason He's had a more stable career than guys like Owens and Moss; he's exemplified quiet professionalism, hard work, and has consistently played at an elite level.
You're probably right about Larry Allen, but it's sad that possibly the greatest (almost certainly the strongest) and most dominate offensive lineman in NFL history only makes it as a 2nd teamer on a single All Decade Team. He's certainly more deserving of making this one than Ronnie Lott was of making the 90s team. Poor Darren Woodson...talk about getting screwed, lol.
Good call on the QBs, and overall a pretty decent list.
Hmm all-decade teams being by decades and some players missing out due to their DOB is inevitable. Sort of like olymic gymnasts with their short primes, half of them might not even have the option of competing during their prime years.
However, I think it does make sense to expand upon the statistics already available here... You can look per-game, or per-season, or career. Why not have the ability to look at 2, 3, 5, 10 game/year timespans? You already have the data, just need to write a front end to view it that way. Leaderboards for that data would be interesting too, particularly year-by-year.
Incidentally, I was just trying to figure out who has thrown for the most yards in a 3 year stretch.
Marino was the most I found with 13,967 from 84-86, and Brees 06-08 has 13910. Brees would need 4476 yards to surpass that in 09...
In the spirit of Richie's comment, could you do some more original but still arbitrarily defined all-time lists? It could be fun. I'd like to see an All-Time Bush Term Team, or maybe an All-Post-9/11 Team, or even an All-Post-"Polian Rules" Team. It's time to take back arbitrary lists from the jokers at ESPN. We should be able to do such a pointless task much much more pointlessly.
Ooh the possibilities are endless!
Another pointless but potentially entertaining list... You have actual team records and you have pythagorean records. If you take the pythagorean record as a true measure of team quality, one should be able to calculate the luckiest/unluckiest players in the history of football
Great stuff, Chase.
With all due respect to the Pro Bowl voters (and Harvard), Matt Birk cannot "make legitimate arguments to being the first team all-decade center". He's incredibly overrated. Wiegmann and Hartings would be 5th and 6th on my list, with Birk 7th.
I also think Hines Ward is way ahead of Steve Smith and I'll echo the opinion that you may not have given Torry Holt his due.
But like Mr Shush, when those are the only quibbles I have, that’s pretty much an indication I think it’s a great piece.
marvin on the second team. what about receiving titles. how many do moss and owens have... none marvin also played with better running backs that's why he didn't catch as many td's. edge got the goal line carries.
I know its been mentioned many times in many different blogs, but the majority of AP voters are beat writers for various NFL teams. Their first priority is to watch the games they get paid to watch and then do their interviews, write their articles for the local paper and then---maybe catch a second game on TV. At best, they might catch 2-3 games each week---just like any ordinary fan. And, just like any ordinary fan, they are hardly concentrating on how the left guard, or outside linebacker, or strong safety is playing. I'm not saying that they don't do their homework---they read the stat lines of the skill players, but, most players don't have stat lines, and, in the end, All-Pro teams are pretty much dictated by the publicity departments of the various teams around the league. Hype over reality.
I could go on, but MattieShoes has already said it best, "Another pointless but potentially entertaining list."