We’ve hit the half-way point in the season for most teams and since tonight’s Chicago Bears at San Diego Chargers game will in no way factor into our All-Pro team’s offenses or defenses, there’s no reason to keep it a secret any longer.
My All-Pro Team will be set up a little different than the Associated Press’s team. Mainly because of the fact that it’s 2015 and the AP still names a fullback to the team. Teams that actually line up and play with a fullback can be counted on one hand. And even those teams that use a fullback, like the Green Bay Packers and St. Louis Rams, rarely even start him and maybe play him in 20 percent of the snaps. It’s a waste of a spot.
My team will consist of a roster combinations that you might actually see start a regular NFL game. On to the team.
Quarterback
Tom Brady, New England Patriots
2015: 113.5 QB rating, 69.6 completion percentage, 2,709 yards, 22 touchdowns, two interceptions
Whether Tom Brady remains in this spot at the end of the season remains to be seen, but there’s little doubt that eight games in Brady has not only been unstoppable, he’s been near-perfect. With pretty much the same team around him that had sports media writing him off last season, Brady has his team at a perfect 8-0 and has performed a level he’s not reached in nearly a decade. There are arguments for Cam Newton here, and, Hell, I could make them, but Brady, in spite of his battle with the NFL in the offseason (and obvious guilt), is not only our All-Pro quarterback, but our mid-season Most Valuable Player.
Running back
Todd Gurley, St. Louis Rams
2015: 664 yards, 5.6 yards per carry, four touchdowns, six catches, 88 yards
Todd Gurley didn’t start the first two games of the season for the Rams and barely played in the third. Since then, however, something interesting has happened to the rookie from Georgia in that he’s pretty much the undisputed best running back in the NFL. Gurley has taken the league bu storm and has even put the Rams, regardless of their other problems on offense, in the NFL playoff hunt on the way to the first of many Pro Bowls, making him not only our All-Pro running back but our mid-season Offensive Rookie of the Year.
Wide receivers
Julio Jones, Atlanta Falcons
2015: 80 receptions, 1,029 yards, six touchdowns
DeAndre Hopkins, Houston Texans
2015: 66 receptions, 870 yards, six touchdowns
Larry Fitzgerald, Arizona Cardinals
2015: 55 receptions, 706 yards, seven touchdowns
The numbers Jones has put up at this point of the season are almost unprecedented so it’s OK if you’ve missed the season that Hopkins and Fitzgerald are having. It’s a shame (and shows why Bill O’Brien is probably over his head as a head coach) that the Texans have two of the best players in the NFL on their roster and won’t even finish with a winning record. Moving to the slot has rejuvenated Fitzgerald’s career in Arizona and good example of how to extend the career of an older, former big-play receiver with quality hands. Jones, what else can you say about him? He’s super human at this point.
Tight ends
Rob Gronkowski, New England Patriots
2015: 44 receptions, 693 yards, seven touchdowns
Tyler Eifert, Cincinnati Bengals
2015: 37 receptions, 434 yards, nine touchdowns
If he’s healthy, Gronkowski will pretty much always make this team, creating a consistent match-up problem against any team without an elite safety or weakside linebacker. Gronkowski is all but uncover-able if Brady has time and the outside receivers do their jobs. Eifert, in Cincinnati, is just one of the team-full of elite weapons the Bengals have at their disposal, but with each game he becomes more of a match-up problem and is forging out his own Gronkowski-sized hole in opposing defenses.
Offensive line
D’Brickshaw Ferguson, OT, New York Jets
Donald Penn, OT, Oakland Raiders
Zach Martin, OG, Dallas Cowboys
Ryan Wendell, OG, New England Patriots
Rodney Hudson, C, Oakland Raiders
The numbers don’t lie when it comes to the offensive line and there are a handful of units playing at another level this season. Currently the New England Patriots have a power-success rate of 67 percent on run blocking, which is the best in the league by a good six percentage points, hence the addition of Wendell here. The Raiders boast the best pass-blocking line in the league, with only a 3.4 percent sack rate, so Penn and Hudson both gets the nod here. No quarterback has been sacked less than Ryan Fitzpatrick for the Jets and Furguson is a big part of that. Martin is the lone representative of the Cowboys’ line that remains one of the best in football.
