Why isn't Jake Bailey dominating the AFC Pro Bowl vote?

[borg]

On the field, it's not even close

2020 AFC Punting Statistics | The Football Database (footballdb.com)

		Punting	Opponent Returns
Player	Team	Gms	Punts	Yds	Avg	Lg	TB	In20	OB	FC	Dwn	Blk	Net	Ret	RYds	TD
Jake Bailey	NE	13	40	1,951	48.8	71	3	23	4	15	10	0	46.1	8	46	0
Logan Cooke	JAX	12	45	2,135	47.4	67	4	18	5	8	13	0	43.6	15	95	0
Sam Koch	BAL	12	45	2,028	45.1	59	1	20	7	17	5	0	43.0	15	71	0
Kevin Huber	CIN	12	54	2,562	47.4	70	6	16	2	12	12	0	42.6	22	141	0
Matt Haack	MIA	12	50	2,215	44.3	63	1	21	3	20	11	0	42.5	15	69	0
Bryan Anger	HOU	12	43	2,016	46.9	67	5	14	4	15	3	0	42.1	16	104	0
Sam Martin	DEN	12	48	2,280	47.5	69	3	13	9	12	3	1	41.3	21	198	0
A.J. Cole	LV	12	33	1,450	43.9	63	1	16	5	13	5	0	40.9	9	82	0
Rigoberto Sanchez	IND	11	31	1,464	47.2	60	3	15	1	8	5	1	40.6	14	104	0
Jordan Berry	PIT	7	34	1,560	45.9	62	2	15	4	13	3	0	40.5	12	143	0
Tommy Townsend	KC	12	36	1,651	45.9	67	6	13	5	12	3	0	40.2	10	85	0
Jamie Gillan	CLE	12	37	1,643	44.4	59	1	11	3	10	3	0	38.6	20	193	0
Braden Mann	NYJ	12	60	2,707	45.1	60	5	13	8	13	6	0	38.1	28	318	0
Ty Long	LAC	12	46	2,167	47.1	63	3	9	4	7	3	3	33.6	29	462	1

 

[Sciz]

The Pro Bowl fan votes are terrible, because so many people vote without actually knowing who these players are. Alex Cappa is leading all NFC guards and isn't even the best guard on his team. Devin White is leading all NFC ILBs and isn't even the best ILB on his team. Rodrigo Blankenship is leading all AFC kickers despite not making a field goal longer than 44 yards. Carlton Davis is leading all NFC CBs while also leading the NFL in receiving yards allowed.

One piece of good news for Bailey is that the leading AFC punter (Matt Haack from Miami) had 51,765 votes as of Wednesday, the lowest number of votes for any player leading their position and conference. Hekker has almost double that to lead NFC punters. That probably means a lot of people aren't voting for an AFC punter at all, while the people who do are splitting their votes lots of different ways.

 

[brdmaverick]

He should be leading it. The problem is that the voters don't care about punting and just pick the punter of 'their team'.

 

[everlong]

So I couldn't believe the Patriots only have 40 punts this year. Doesn't seem like they've gone 3 and out and punted that many times in a few games? Crazy.

So I looked at other years and it's nuts where the Pats usually have 60-75 punts year in and year out. At the current rate they'll scrape 50. BTW the total outlier, is of course, 2007 when they only punted 44 times for the entire season.

I think three things have caused this year to be a lower punt total when intuitively you would think it would be higher.

1. There's less possessions per team because the Pats are trying to grind out the clock and not grind their opponents into dust.
2. They're already at 28 turnovers. Most years they're in the low 20's. That holds for 2007 with a much more dynamic and high risk offense.
3. They've turned the ball over on downs 7 times already which is as high as any other year (only 1 year had that many) with 3 games left.

 

[Joey007]

The Pro Bowl fan votes are terrible, because so many people vote without actually knowing who these players are. Alex Cappa is leading all NFC guards and isn't even the best guard on his team. Devin White is leading all NFC ILBs and isn't even the best ILB on his team. Rodrigo Blankenship is leading all AFC kickers despite not making a field goal longer than 44 yards. Carlton Davis is leading all NFC CBs while also leading the NFL in receiving yards allowed.

One piece of good news for Bailey is that the leading AFC punter (Matt Haack from Miami) had 51,765 votes as of Wednesday, the lowest number of votes for any player leading their position and conference. Hekker has almost double that to lead NFC punters. That probably means a lot of people aren't voting for an AFC punter at all, while the people who do are splitting their votes lots of different ways.

Fan voting should be relinquished.

I’m a fun hater, sure whatever. It’s purely a popularity contest for the fans with no true accuracy.

 

[Jim Beankie]

So I couldn't believe the Patriots only have 40 punts this year. Doesn't seem like they've gone 3 and out and punted that many times in a few games? Crazy.

So I looked at other years and it's nuts where the Pats usually have 60-75 punts year in and year out. At the current rate they'll scrape 50. BTW the total outlier, is of course, 2007 when they only punted 44 times for the entire season.

I think three things have caused this year to be a lower punt total when intuitively you would think it would be higher.

1. There's less possessions per team because the Pats are trying to grind out the clock and not grind their opponents into dust.
2. They're already at 28 turnovers. Most years they're in the low 20's. That holds for 2007 with a much more dynamic and high risk offense.
3. They've turned the ball over on downs 7 times already which is as high as any other year (only 1 year had that many) with 3 games left.

That jives with that stat from a week or so ago stating that the Patriots were 2nd in average yards per drive this season (40.25) to the Chiefs. That should be a slightly lower number now, but this offense does move the ball, even though it doesn't look like it. Too bad Cam (or McD) became so darn risk averse with all his early INTs (at the wrong times) to be able to chuck it up to N'Keal in the red zone.

 

[TinhWoodhead]

Bc theres a lot of pats h8rs

 

[crawhammer]

Why would anyone care enough about a punter to create a dedicated post about his supposed pro bowl worthiness?

 

[JPPT1974]

Really I like Jake. Heard a lot of nice things on and off the field. Plus I have a thing for kickers LOL!

 

[notex]

He’s a good punter but I have no idea how you evaluate a punter... we have a lot of 3 and outs so he can punt the ball far... so average is a skewed stat.

a bad team will also get a lot more chances to pin ball inside 10 or 20 because they have to punt so often...

 

[PWRxWLF]

Really I like Jake. Heard a lot of nice things on and off the field. Plus I have a thing for kickers LOL!

Are you.....trying to tell us something.....Jake.....?

 

[PWRxWLF]

Really I like Jake. Heard a lot of nice things on and off the field. Plus I have a thing for kickers LOL!

Seriously though, you are absolutely right. He deserves to get the bonus and recognition that comes with his excellent play. As others have said, the voting is a sham. Another ****ty non pro bowl draftee by the GM Belichick.