Wednesday, December 17, 2008

MOSTLY WELL-DESERVED

Seven Jets made it to the Pro Bowl. For a game no one cares about, that's pretty significant and worth mentioning.

It's also pretty heady stuff - most teams that get 5 or more players to the Pro Bowl are championship-caliber teams. The strange thing about it is that the Jets are precariously perched when it comes to playoff position. For the most part, though, the nods were well-deserved.
Let's look at the selections:

QB - Brett Favre - The Pro Bowl shouldn't be a legacy award, but we all know this happens sometimes. Favre is the least deserving of the Jets named, and might be so banged up that he gives up his spot. Maybe then someone more deserving like Matt Cassel or Chad Pennington will get in. It's not like this is unprecedented....but that doesn't make it right.

RB - Thomas Jones - What a year he's had. Jets records for touchdowns (rushing and overall). He hasn't looked like one of the best in the game at times this year, but with the Jets' struggles in the passing game for most of this year, he's probably the team MVP (at least offensively).

OL - Alan Faneca, Nick Mangold - Another significant piece of the Jets' success this year, especially the veteran Faneca, who is probably directly responsible for the younger Mangold getting to the Pro Bowl. Well-deserved on both counts.

DT - Kris Jenkins - OK. At times he has been dominant this year, but others he's been near-invisible. I'd say this is probably deserved...but only mostly, not 100%.

CB - Darrelle Revis - Definitely deserved. Might make an argument here for Kerry Rhodes as well. They've been the strength of the Jets' secondary. Good for Revis. He was a good draft pick.

KR - Leon Washington - For the first time since Chad Morton's heyday, the Jets have a legit threat on kickoffs. Washington has become a threat to score every time he touches the ball...moreso on special teams than offense, but you still can't relax when he's in the backfield because he might break one.

So all of this is to say that it may look weird for the Jets to have 7 Pro Bowlers, but 5 of them definitely deserve the nod. The other 2 sort of raise expectations for themselves over the final two games of the season.

Because here's the other thing - there's only one Bowl I care about come February. And it isn't the one in Hawaii.

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