AFC Pro Bowl Roster- Do you have any complaints?

[Nate DaMac]

Quarterback
Tom Brady, New England
Ben Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh
Philip Rivers, San Diego

Running back
Ray Rice, Baltimore
Maurice Jones-Drew, Jacksonville
Arian Foster, Houston

Fullback
Vonta Leach, Baltimore

Wide receiver
Wes Welker, New England
* Mike Wallace, Pittsburgh
A.J. Green, Cincinnati
Brandon Marshall, Miami

Tight end
Rob Gronkowski, New England
Antonio Gates, San Diego

Tackle
Joe Thomas, Cleveland
Jake Long, Miami
D'Brickashaw Ferguson, N.Y. Jets

Guard
Logan Mankins, New England
Brian Waters, New England
Marshal Yanda, Baltimore

Center
Maurkice Pouncey, Pittsburgh
Nick Mangold, N.Y. Jets

Defense

Defensive end
Dwight Freeney, Indianapolis
Andre Carter, New England
Elvis Dumervil, Denver

Interior linemen
Haloti Ngata, Baltimore
Vince Wilfork, New England
Richard Seymour, Oakland

Outside linebacker
Terrell Suggs, Baltimore
Von Miller, Denver
Tamba Hali, Kansas City

Inside/midde linebacker
Ray Lewis, Baltimore
Derrick Johnson, Kansas City

Cornerback
Darrelle Revis, N.Y. Jets
Champ Bailey, Denver
Johnathan Joseph, Houston

Free safety
Ed Reed, Baltimore
Eric Weddle, San Diego

Strong safety
Troy Polamalu, Pittsburgh

Special teams


Punter Shane Lechler, Oakland
Placekicker Sebastian Janikowski, Oakland
Kick returner Antonio Brown, Pittsburgh
Special teamerMatthew Slater, New England

So there is the AFC Pro Bowl roster that was announced yesterday. Do you have any issues with any of the selections?

For me, the only thing that truly looks out of place is the selection of Phillip Rivers. Rivers is having one of his worst seasons ever, leading the league in interceptions as well as leading his team to an enormous failure of a season.

But at the same time, who else is there to put in? The AFC has seen better years from the QB position. Who else could have filled his shoes?

Oh yeah, forgot about that guy. You know, the guy who has kept the Bengals, a team that a lot of people predicted would get the first pick in the draft in 2012, alive all the way to the end. They still have a shot at the last wild card spot. Meanwhile, San Diego had a shot to keep in the hunt and they went into Detroit and got stomped out.

His numbers aren't spectacular, but they're good. Much better than Rivers'(especially where it counts.)

So what do you think fo the AFC Pro Bowl roster?

I'm going to do one for the NFC too.

 

[Unsold Bacon]

Phillip Rivers is obviously the guy who doesn't fit here. The Chargers have been flat out terrible and some of it is on him, I don't know what's wrong but as a Broncos fan I don't mind it. But If you are a member of the Charger organization you have to be curious as to what is going on and must want it fixed ASAP.

 

[justinsayne]

How the fuck did Rivers make the cut?!? he's been awful this season. I'm with Nate Dalton should have gotten that spot, hell Tebow is more deserving of a Pro Bowl roster spot than fucking Rivers this season. Other than Rivers I have no real issue with the roster.

 

[Megatron]

For Phil I think it was just one of those years that's just 'off'. Doesn't change the fact he's one of the 10 best QBs in the league, but once in a while good QBs will have poor years that you just won't really expect. Eli Manning had a pretty crappy year last year with all of his INTs. Kurt Warner had a few forgettable years near the end of his Rams tenure and 1 year with the Giants before turning it on with the Cardinals. Brett Favre has had a handful of years where he had more picks then TDs. It just goes with the gunslinger type mentality. That doesn't excuse the committee from including Rivers, because he doesn't belong this year, but that's what I'd take this season with. A change in coaching/front office could be good for him. Dalton is the really only acceptable replacement, though, so that shows you how the performances of the AFC QBs this year really was.

As for the other misplacement, I'd go with the other Charger I see, Antonio Gates. He was marred by injury and, while there was already enough Patriots and his own position mate was elected, Aaron Hernandez really belonged here. If he's on the Browns, Chiefs, Raiders, etc. with those numbers he's gonna be elected. I think they were afraid to include him though due to the fact that a) Gronkowski already got the nod and they probably didn't want 2 players from the same position from the same team and b) there were already 8 Patriots. Whether those reasons are justifiable or not, Hernandez will probably make his way on the team via 'injury' concerns.

EDIT: While I agree Rivers didn't have his greatest year and wasn't really deserving, he hasn't been as bad as you guys are painting him out to be. Interceptions happen. Dalton had some pretty bad/unimpressive games himself (2 vs Pit, Baltimore, 1st vs. Cle, SF, Buffalo, Stl) and the two main marks he has above Rivers is that his INT rate wasn't as high and his team is currently in the wild card hunt. Everywhere else Rivers was the better QB, and this was with a real hurting core and (an alleged) injury himself. It's not a complete travesty like you guys are making it out to be.

 

[BooCocky]

I have a few problems, I don't think Rivers deserves the cut. I think Andy Dalton has had a much better year. I think Polamalu had a so so year but I cant name another safety at the top of my head so I guess I get why he made it. Bret Keisel deserves a roster spot. He's been the anchor of that defense. He takes on several blockers a game. Makes big plays. He's just been awesome all year. Pouncey has been mediocre all year. Ike Taylor has shut down every receiver this year and he has two interceptions. Also Clark has had an exceptional year. He deserves a spot. But yeah, other than that, I have no complaints.

 

[Nate DaMac]

While I agree Rivers didn't have his greatest year and wasn't really deserving, he hasn't been as bad as you guys are painting him out to be. Interceptions happen. Dalton had some pretty bad/unimpressive games himself (2 vs Pit, Baltimore, 1st vs. Cle, SF, Buffalo, Stl) and the two main marks he has above Rivers is that his INT rate wasn't as high and his team is currently in the wild card hunt. Everywhere else Rivers was the better QB, and this was with a real hurting core and (an alleged) injury himself. It's not a complete travesty like you guys are making it out to be.

Rivers has 4 more TDs, a lot more yards, 6 more picks, and most importantly, he has 2 more losses than Andy Dalton. I'd say that Galton's had the better year, seeing as the only place he truly has Dalton beat is in yards and those yards surely haven't been too relevant if they still lose more than 50% of their games.

Just imagine if the INT return yards counted against the QB's yards. He'd probably be about 600 yards closer to Dalton.

 

[Davi323]

"The Pro Bowl is largely about popularity, not necessarily about who is having the better season. I agree that Rivers has no business being a Pro Bowler this year, but he got in because of his previous years, his body of work. I hate it. When I voted on NFL.com for my pro bowl choices, I went by how they were doing THIS year, not last year, not two years ago, because that is what you are supposed to do."

This is what my complaint about the AFC QB selections was supposed to look like. Then I actually took a peek at their QB ratings, to make a list of all the deserving AFC QBs who should have been selected over Rivers...and you know what I found out? It's been a SHIT year to be a QB in the AFC not named Tom Brady. Once you take into account Matt Schaub's injury (a healthy Schaub easily would beat Rivers), as ridiculous as it sounds, the AFC got it right. The top 4 AFC QBs are Brady, Roethlisberger, Schaub, Moore and Rivers. Moore has a slightly higher QB rating than Rivers, but Rivers has almost 2,000 more passing yards.

7 of the top 10 QBs by QB rating are NFC QBs, it's been that bad a year for the AFC. So even though Rivers seems like he doesn't really belong, once you start comparing him to his AFC competition, he actually fits in the upper tier. It's just that the upper tier in the AFC has a much lower standard of performance for anyone not named Brady than the upper tier in the NFC right now.

 

[Big Sexy]

I like Andy Dalton and he had a great year for a rookie but Rivers was better. It certainly wasn't the best season for Rivers but with the AFC qb's being so weak, he deserved the third spot. With the exception of interceptions, Rivers was superior to Dalton in all individual stats. Dalton led the Bengals to 2 more wins but that isn't because he had a better year the Rivers, the Bengals and Chargers are two different teams and Rivers and Dalton had different roles.

Rivers was asked to go out and win football games for the Chargers by being the teams best player. That is a hard thing to do especially when your two best targets (Gates and Vincent Jackson) struggled with injuries all year. Dalton wasn't asked to win games by scoring a ton of points. His role was to lead a balanced offensive attack, not make mistakes, and rely on the defense to help out a lot. He played that role well but it isn't enough to give him the nod over Rivers.

 

[Big Sexy]

The biggest Cincinnati snub is actually defensive tackle Geno Atkins. He led all NFL D tackles with 8 sacks and was a disruptive force all year long. The AFC had a lot of good interior linemen to choose from but Atkins was arguably the most deserving of all of them and I'd take Richard Seymour off the team in favor of Atkins.

 

[Trill Co$by]

AFC's got a stacked roster this year...

Starting with defense, they've got three strong Ravens players in T Sizzle, Ray Lewis, and Ed Reed as well as Bronco's Champ Bailey to bring pressure and coverage to NFC's offense... and at the same time, they've got quicker than a hick up Polamalu who is so dangerous against any offense that he has his INTs picked out before the plays even begin.

And then, on the offensive side, they've got without a doubt the biggest threat to Aaron Rogers in Tom Brady. This guy is Patriots' franchise guy and you'd have to be one serious fan boy for whatever team you route for to not see why. And for the JUST IN CASE scenario of Brady getting injured, they've got last year's AFC Champion QB Ben Roethlisberger to come in for him. As a Ravens fan, I can agree when I say that I'd rather a better quarterback than Rivers as the third string, but then again I'm counting on a Ravens Superbowl win from Flacco, so the more time he has to spend with the Ravens instead of the AFC is fine by me.

Then we got to the running back where the little man Ray Rice stands. Rice is just as great at getting through that starting defensive line for extra yards as he is at going to the outside and turning on those jets for the 6. Then, if that wasn't enough, they've got Arian Foster and Maurice Johnson-Drew to fall back on for third and second string respectively. I personally find Arian better suited for the second string, maybe even first string RB but then again, it's nice to know that IF those two get hurt there's still a very solid RB to help the team.

I won't go to far into the WRs, because I'm not really a fan of the WR position and find teams that go with a solid running game to be more entertaining. But, with that said, I will say that I find the lack of Jerome Simpson to be disappointing... Would be nice to see him flip over someone in Honolulu.


I honestly have been a bigger fan of AFC football because, to me, their games have been more personal and their rivalries seriously mean something... Plus, when it comes to football, they play to win and usually the coaches of the conference have strong similarities that can easily help balance out the teams. I haven't seen NFC's roster yet, but from this AFC roster alone, you've got to figure that NFC is in for some big time disappointment.

 

[The Bearded One]

As a Jaguars fan, of course I'm going to say the team had some players snubbed. I am going to take off my teal shaded glasses and look objectively at who on the Jags should have made the Pro Bowl rosters that didn't. Looking over the stats and who made the roster, there are two players on the Jags that I can honestly say got snubbed. Those two players are MLB Paul Posluszny and kicker Josh Scobee.

The middle linebackers for the AFC are Derrick Johnson and Ray Lewis. There is no denying that Derrick Johnson should be on the Pro Bowl roster, but Posluszny should have made the team over Lewis. Posluszny is fifth among AFC linebackers with 115 tackles on the season, when Lewis is ranked 15 in the same category. Posluszny and Lewis have the same amount of sacks with two. Poszluszny also is ranked third among linebackers in pass defenses with 11 pass defenses, which is four more than Lewis. Posluszny deserves to be playing in the Pro Bowl.

The other Jaguars player who should have made it to the Pro Bowl is Josh Scobee. The kicker for the AFC is Sebastian Janikowski, and Scobee has better numbers than him almost all the way across the board. Janikowski has made more field goals than Scobee, but that's because Scobee attempted fewer field goals than Janikowski made. If it wasn't for Shayne Graham making both of his field goals for the Ravens this season, Scobee would have led the AFC kickers by making 90 percent of his field goals, which is 3 percent better than Janikowski. Scobee is also better at kicking the ball off. Scobee has a higher touchback percentage than Janikowski with a 67.8 percent touchback percentage. Janikowski's is 63 percent. Scobee also has more touchbacks (36) than Janikowski (31) despite having 21 fewer kickoff attempts. The numbers show that Scobee should be in the Pro Bowl.

I would have made an argument in favor of Jaguars outside linebacker Daryl Smith to make the Pro Bowl, but it looks as if 3-4 outside linebackers are preferred over 4-3 outside linebackers. The three linebackers chosen for the Pro Bowl are more known for their ability to sack the quarterback. Smith is not asked to do that in the Jaguars defense, so his sack numbers come nowhere close to those who were selected. Smith is, however, second among outside linebackers in total tackles and third among outside linebackers is pass defenses. I think he should have made the roster, but I can't justify putting him ahead of who was chosen.

 

[Skairipa Matrix]

the only person there who really doesnt fit is rivers he had a horrible year i dont get why they selected him sure theirs not much else in the AFC for QB's that had good years but why not put in Andy Dalton from the bengals or Joe Flacco from the ravens? both of them had much better years then rivers and both lead their teams to the playoffs and winning records while the chargers did not make the playoffs and had a losing record