The Pro Bowl rosters are out, and to the surprise of likely no one outside of Ashburn, the Commanders have a grand total of zero – not even either of the special teamers who made it last year.
Only four teams were shut out, with the Panthers, Packers, and Patriots also without anyone selected…and yeah, there’s a common thread with three of those teams, and it seems like DC got what they deserved.
“Over the last few years, we’ve generally seen one or two guys pop through, but I frankly don’t think they had a Pro Bowler this year,” JP Finlay said. “On one hand, it’s easy to dismiss Pro Bowl voting, because some of it is a popularity contest with fan voting, and some teams do a better job promoting – but the players and coaches also vote, and for those who say it’s a joke, players care because they get paid more off of it with bonuses and things. And, eventually down the line, when players get to Hall of Fame voting, Pro Bowls matter – so it is indicative of a team’s success and talent level.”
“I’m happy they don’t do like baseball where every team gets somebody,” BMitch replied, “especially since they don’t play a game anymore.”
But on JP’s idea of team success, the Commanders could have a blueprint for the next regime?
“What we keep hearing is people around the Ravens and Nienrs are who Josh Harris may be targeting to come take over this organization,” JP said. “The Ravens have seven Pro Bowlers, five of whom were drafted in various rounds, and one was an undrafted guy that they found in Justin Tucker, who might go down as the greatest kicker ever. To me, that’s organizational excellence, because it is going deep in your draft, up and down your draft, turning these guys into super-talented players, and the front office targeting good players that are available and make sense for the team, and being aggressive to get that done.”
“I'm with that. I think sometimes it's not the player; some players come in and they need some great guidance and they don't ever get it, and that same player goes to another team and you go, what the hell,” BMitch replied. “Some coaches are garbage, let’s realize that, and they cannot lead or try transform somebody into what they wanna be or need to be.”
And looking at the four teams without Pro Bowlers, JP noted that three of them drafting in the Top 4, if not Top 3, ‘tells you something,’ as does the fact that the Ravens and Niners, each conference’s No. 1 seed, have seven and nine Pro Bowlers, respectively.
“One of the Niners’ Pro Bowlers, Nick Bosa, is a Top 2 pick, and you have to hit on those,” JP said, “but another one is Mr. Irrelevant, the last pick in the Draft. Kittle was a fifth-rounder, I don’t even know where Kyle Juszczyk was drafted, and two of them are probably future Hall of Famers they identified and traded for, knowing they had to be fast and aggressive to get them in the trade market.”
So yeah, good organizations to try to find parts of the next regime from, and it just goes to Brian’s oft-used claim:
“It further supports my claim that the only thing people care about is the first and second round, but you can find them all over the damn draft if you have the right people in place to go pick them.”
