In early January, the
Associated Press announced its All-Pro team. The voting process is pretty simple: 50 voters select their top players at each position, and a first-team All-Pro squad is announced. The runners-up at each position are placed on the second-team, but that leads to some very odd results.
If fans, teams, and
Hall of Fame voters are going to put weight on a player being considered a 2nd-team All-Pro, then the voters should actually vote for both a first and second team. Simply naming the second vote getter (or third and fourth vote getters at positions with two starters) as the second-team All-Pro(s) invites significant abuses of the system.
Lets take a look at the detailed voting breakdown. Ive bolded the first-team All-Pro(s) at each position, and italicized the second-team choices.
Quarterback
Peyton Manning, Denver, 50.
This ones pretty easy.
Running Back
LeSean McCoy, Philadelphia, 48; Jamaal Charles, Kansas City, 47; Adrian Peterson, Minnesota, 1; Eddie Lacy, Green Bay, 1.
Did you hear that
Eddie Lacy was a
second-team All-Pro choice in 2013? Thats because
one voter presumably one in Wisconsin
decided that Lacy was better than McCoy or Charles in 2013. And thats it. Is Lacy, or for that matter, Peterson, a more-deserving choice as a 2nd-team All-Pro than Matt Forte, Marshawn Lynch, Alfred Morris, Knowshon Moreno, or DeMarco Murray? Who knows and thats the point. The 2nd-team All-Pro honors going to Peterson and Lacy are essentially meaningless pieces of information. All we know is that 1 voter out of 50 decided that those two were top-2 running backs in 2013. Gregg Rosenthal noted that it was a shame that Forte was passed over for 2nd-team honors, and I agree with that sentiment. But Forte wasnt passed over in the literal sense: had the 50 voters actually selected a second-team pair of running backs, I suspect Forte would have been chosen.
Its also worth noting that it appears as though 3 voters selected only one running back.
Brilliant...
