Patriots' Pro Bowl-caliber players

I just got an email from nfl.com saying it's time to start voting for players for the Pro Bowl. I don't care about the Pro Bowl (though it might matter to players down the road for HOF consideration, believe it or not), but it did prompt this thought: Who are New England's Pro Bowl-caliber players? Here's my list:

QB Brady
OL Vollmer
OL Mankins
RB Ridley
TE Gronkowski
TE Hernandez (though his stats wouldn't get him there this year due to injury)
WR Welker
DT Wilfork
DE Jones
LB Mayo
LB Spikes
K Gostkowski
ST Slater

Am I missing anyone? (note the absence of anyone in the defensive backfield!!)

QB Tom Brady *
RB Stevan Ridley
TE Rob Gronkowski *
WR Wes Welker *
OT Sebastian Vollmer *
DE Chandler Jones & Rob Ninkovich
DT Vince Wilfork *
LB Jerod Mayo * & Brandon Spikes
S Devin McCourty
K Stephen Gostkowski
P Zoltan Mesko
ST Matthew Slater

* = Starter in the Pro Bowl (if they don't withdraw due to the Super Bowl of course).

Mankins & Hernandez miss out due to injury, McCourty hasn't been half as bad as some people on here would like to tell you, Ninkovich is quietly having a very good season and Mesko is as good as he always is.

Mankins is not a pro bowl player this year. He hasn't been that good this year.

Hernandez is good but he have been injured this year.

McCourty had one kick off return td but he is not in top of average, don't know if he will get in the pro bowl for that but his average is not that high.

ivanvamp said:

I just got an email from nfl.com saying it's time to start voting for players for the Pro Bowl. I don't care about the Pro Bowl (though it might matter to players down the road for HOF consideration, believe it or not), but it did prompt this thought: Who are New England's Pro Bowl-caliber players? Here's my list:

QB Brady
OL Vollmer
OL Mankins
RB Ridley
TE Gronkowski
TE Hernandez (though his stats wouldn't get him there this year due to injury)
WR Welker
DT Wilfork
DE Jones
LB Mayo
LB Spikes
K Gostkowski
ST Slater

Am I missing anyone? (note the absence of anyone in the defensive backfield!!)

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McCourty...

AndyJohnson said:

McCourty...

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I understand he's probably been better than he's been given credit for this year, but do you really think he's been a Pro Bowl-caliber player? As in, one of the best DBs in the AFC?

ivanvamp said:

I understand he's probably been better than he's been given credit for this year, but do you really think he's been a Pro Bowl-caliber player? As in, one of the best DBs in the AFC?

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2nd amongst safeties in the AFC for interceptions (Byrd leads the league) and for safety the AFC has who after Reed & Berry? Yep, McCourty & Byrd. Polamalu is injured yet will still probably get voted in but at least one of those safeties listed will pull out.

As a CB with Revis out there's only really Cromartie & Joseph that are known names out there who will get in for certain, then maybe Joe Haden.

Mayo has been pretty average this year, despite his stats. Spikes makes awesome stuffs and hits like a truck, but he's given up so many plays in coverage that I think he is dqed.

Jones should get in for sure and IMO Wilfork and he are the only players on our D that deserves a spot.

If Chandler gets like 8 more sacks to end the year, I'd say he's the only one on defense I'd vote in. Brady, Ridley, Welker, Gronk and Vollmer are the others. No to Mankins, he's made it to many times on reputation.

I don't see how Gostkowski gets even close to the Pro Bowl...his FG kicking been less than average this year.

Mesko should be in with a shout. He's a massively underrated Punter. His stats are massively deceiving, i think he has the shortest avg punt length in the AFC but that's because the Pats only Punt in good field position (we've only had 8 3&outs all season). His kicking into the 20 has been incredible this season.

Definitely: Brady, Gronkowski, Vollmer
Maybe: Ridley, Welker, Mankins, Wilfork, Jones, Mayo, Spikes, McCourty

For this year, at least:

Offense
Brady
Ridley
Gronk
Vollmer
Welker

Defense
Wilfork
Mayo
Jones

Special Teams
Slater

Spikes could conceivably make it, but is a longshot. Hernandez and Mankins miss out on account of injury, and Connolly misses out on account of being pushed back to guard with Waters' retirement. He would have made it as a center, probably. McCourty gets victimized by the fact that he doesn't really have a clear position, at this point, since I think he'd likely make it as a full-time safety

Definite Starters:

RT Vollmer
TE Gronkowski
ILB Mayo

Backups:

QB Brady (You know Peyton will make it above him...)
RB Ridley (Foster/Rice/CJ)
DE Jones (Watt/Wake)
WR Welker (Wayne/Green)
S Mccourty (Reed/Polamalu even though the latter is injured)
Wilfork (Geno Atkins), starter in a 4-3, but Akins has been better IMO.

Big-T said:

2nd amongst safeties in the AFC for interceptions (Byrd leads the league) and for safety the AFC has who after Reed & Berry? Yep, McCourty & Byrd. Polamalu is injured yet will still probably get voted in but at least one of those safeties listed will pull out.

As a CB with Revis out there's only really Cromartie & Joseph that are known names out there who will get in for certain, then maybe Joe Haden.

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Brandon Flowers is also a better CB than McCourty, for starters. I agree re: Cromartie: he deserves a lot of credit for stepping up with Revis out, and he's been one of the best CBs in the league. Webb is on this tier along with Joseph and Haden, too, though he's also out for the year.

I'd generally say Leon Hall, but I haven't watched the Bengals enough to know how he's doing this year. He isn't putting up any stats, but that could be because nobody's throwing at him (which means he's doing his job awfully well). Same with Champ Bailey. Ike Taylor hasn't impressed me at all this year, so I'd leave him off.

Generally speaking, I typically regard McCourty as being right around the Ike Taylor tier, aka not as good as any of the guys listed above. In other words, I'd typically rank him as, at best, the 9th-10th best CB in the AFC. With Nickel basically being the new base, I'd split the difference and say that there's about 40 starting CBs in the AFC, putting McCourty in the upper tier (though admittedly, that's really simplistic, and doesn't acknowledge that they don't all fall into a neat, even distribution). Two of the guys who I'd usually put above him are out for the year, but he's still not Pro Bowl-caliber at CB, IMO.

Brady
Vollmer
Gronk
Welker
Wilfork
Mayo



Ridley is behind Foster and probably battling with Johnson, Rice, Spiller and Charles for the #2 spot at the moment.

Jones is behind Watt and is probably one of a group contending for the remaining spots. The 3-4 v. 4-3 thing makes it a bit more complicated.

I didn't look at the ST guys.

They would be the only Patriots players I would consider. That isn't a list that should be on a Pro Bowl roster, just considered.

I'm glad to see everyone has Volmer on their list he deserves it.

For sure-
Brady
Welker
Gronk
Mayo

Probably-
Vollmer
Ridley
Wilfork

Possibly-
McCourty
Mankins (he only played half of 2010 and still made it, they love em.)
Jones

Doubtful, but not 100% out of the question-
Ninkovich
Gost
Mesko
Spikes

Very VERY unlikely unless he has a second half explosion-
Lloyd
Hernandez
Solder
Connolly

BradyFTW! said:

Brandon Flowers is also a better CB than McCourty, for starters. I agree re: Cromartie: he deserves a lot of credit for stepping up with Revis out, and he's been one of the best CBs in the league. Webb is on this tier along with Joseph and Haden, too, though he's also out for the year.

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Seriously? What does he deserve credit for? The Jets are 1-6 without Revis and have allowed 25.5 points per game.
So Cromartie gets credit because they had Revis but stink without him?

ivanvamp said:

I just got an email from nfl.com saying it's time to start voting for players for the Pro Bowl. I don't care about the Pro Bowl (though it might matter to players down the road for HOF consideration, believe it or not), but it did prompt this thought: Who are New England's Pro Bowl-caliber players? Here's my list:

QB Brady
OL Vollmer
OL Mankins
RB Ridley
TE Gronkowski
TE Hernandez (though his stats wouldn't get him there this year due to injury)
WR Welker
DT Wilfork
DE Jones
LB Mayo
LB Spikes
K Gostkowski
ST Slater

Am I missing anyone? (note the absence of anyone in the defensive backfield!!)

Click to expand...

Nate Solder - OT
Connolly - OG
McCourty - DB
Coles - ST

All these names deserve being in the conversation.

Who could make it 1st team AFC?:

1. Welker (likely All-Pro in addition)
2. Gronkowski

2nd team:

3. Brady
4. Mankins

Late alternate/fill-in pick:

5. Hernandez