Pro Bowl snubs

The following bit has been cut from the over-large football post I haven't gotten around to finishing these past few weeks. Since today is the last game day of the season, I'm holding that stuff back until after today's game so the Sisyphean task of incorporating a new material into the previous weeks' unfinished business can begin anew. But this looked like something I could remove and post separately.

Pro Bowl snubs: Tis the season for bitching about such things so we'll do our best to contribute. Going into week 17 the Saints are 5th in total defense, 6th in scoring defense and are ranked 2nd against the pass. No Saints defenders appear on the starting NFC Pro Bowl roster.

No player from the NFL’s fifth-ranked defense made the 2011 NFC Pro Bowl squad, not MLB Jonathan Vilma, not SS Roman Harper, though each is a first alternate at his position.

Neither perhaps is a snubbing of epic proportions, but an argument can be made that Harper deserved to go ahead of Arizona Cardinals’ free safety Adrian Wilson and Vilma could have supplanted Chicago Bears middle linebacker Brian Urlacher.

I can see Brain Allee Walsh's argument in favor of Vilma. And, of course, I like Roman Harper. He's a smart player, a good tackler, and as a an occasional blitzer he's arguably the team's best pass rusher. But we're all pretty sure it's all overshadowed by this.



Meanwhile, Marques Colston made it as a second alternate. Are there really that many NFC receivers more deserving? After the Rams game, ESPN's Pat Yasinskas suggested Colston's time was coming. Just not this year, I guess.

And then there's this.

Third alternates were fullback Heath Evans, safety Malcolm Jenkins and punter Thomas Morstead

Thomas Morstead is a third alternate? I know this is hard to believe but, as it turns out, there are (a very few) NFL punters with better numbers than Morstead's. At the time the Pro Bowl rosters were announced, Morstead was ranked 5th in yards per punt (46.4) and 8th in net yards per punt (38.9). His 20 punts downed inside the opponent's 20 ranked him only 22nd overall although that number is a bit deceiving given how infrequently the Saints even punt at all. In fact, 20 punts downed inside the 20 is actually equal to the number posted by Pro Bowl starter Mat Mcbriar in 11 more attempts.

And none of this takes into account Morstead's knack for making things happen with his foot in key situations. Morstead punts resulted in crucial turnovers at San Francisco, and during the first Carolina and Atlanta games to name the first few that come into my head. I could add the most famous onside kick of all time to that if I wanted to cheat by grabbing something from last season. Oh what the hell let's throw that in too. The point is, even if Morstead isn't blowing the league away statistically, he's comparable with the guys who were honored ahead of him and the best 4th round draft pick of any punter we know of. Also I got a brand new laptop for Christmas this year which I named Morstead. So now he's got that going for him too.