A wise man once said that “100 percent of sports-writing is 50% speculation“, and he was absolutely right. Like the rest of the world, the NFL exists in many shades of grey. A fantastic player could be on the wrong team or in the wrong system and never shine; while a mediocre player ends up in the right place at the right time. Determining the “All-NFL” team is ridiculous because nobody really knows for sure who the best players are.
Having said that, the off-season is long, and full of terrors, and we need our NFL fix. Here’s the offensive side of my All-NFL team as we head into the final month without football in 2016.
The All-NFL Team: Offense
Tackle: Tyron Smith
Spoiler Alert– Tyron Smith will not be the last Dallas Cowboy on this list. A brutal reality in the NFC East is that “America’s Team” has a fantastic offensive line. Smith is easily the best run blocking offensive lineman in the NFL. He earned a 98.6 grade from Pro Football Focus, and helped the Cowboys to a top ten rushing season. Despite injuries to Dez Bryant and Tony Romo, Smith and the second coming of the “Great Wall of Dallas” were able to keep Darren McFadden and the run game afloat.
Guard: Marshal Yanda
Unlike Smith, Yanda didn’t get a ton of help on the offensive line last season. The only other gifted lineman on the team, Kelechi Osemele, was switching between guard and tackle constantly, and the rest of the team couldn’t keep up. Injuries to Baltimore‘s elite players kept the Ravens out of the playoffs. It should still be noted that Yanda had a fantastic season. He was the second-best guard in the league in both run and pass blocking.
Center: Travis Frederick
Frederick is the second Dallas Cowboy to grace the list, and is easily the best center in football. While most centers are either exceptional run or pass blockers, Frederick is both. The young Cowboys lineman was the only center to receive at least a 90 from Pro Football Focus. Paired with Dallas’ first-round pick, Ezekiel Elliott, big things are happening in Texas.
Guard: Zack Martin
Martin is the best pass-blocking guard in football. When teamed with Smith and Frederick, he helps form the best offensive line in the league. Last season, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones came out and said that he wished they had drafted Johnny Manziel in the first round instead of Martin. Well, while Manziel is a suspended free agent, Martin is quickly putting together a fantastic career, leading the way for the young Cowboys offensive line.
Tackle: Joe Thomas
Since the Cleveland Browns drafted him in the first round, Joe Thomas has been the best left tackle in the National Football League. Thomas is the only offensive lineman in the history of the game to be named to the Pro Bowl in each of his first nine seasons. Thomas has been to the Pro Bowl every year, and has been named All-Pro eight times. In 2015, Pro Football Focus named Thomas as their best offensive lineman in the league. Despite being 31 years old, Thomas played over a thousand snaps and still played like a younger man.
Tight End: Rob Gronkowski
Was there really any doubt? Is there even an argument for anybody else? Since entering the league in 2010, the man they call “Gronk” has caught more touchdowns than any tight end not named Tony Gonzalez or Antonio Gates. At 6’6″ and 265 pounds, Gronkowski is a monster, and the obvious choice for this position.
Wide Receiver: Antonio Brown
Lately, the Pittsburgh Steelers have had a lot of luck with wide receivers. Santonio Holmes, Mike Wallace, Emmanuel Sanders, and others have stepped in as the number one receiver for the Steelers, and they’ve all had statistical success. Once is a happening, twice is a coincidence, but three times forms a pattern. When a team consistently has success with one position, regardless of who is playing it, people start asking questions.
While Holmes and Wallace have struggled with other teams, it seems silly to say that Brown is a system player. Despite injuries to Ben Roethlisberger and other Steelers, Brown has managed to catch at least 110 passes for 1,499 yards in each of the last three seasons, with 265 catches, 3,532 yards, and 23 touchdowns over the last two.
Wide Receiver: Julio Jones
I tried really, really hard to find someone other than Julio Jones for this spot. Personally, I’m not a fan of Jones. There’s no question that at 6’3″ and 220 pounds, he possesses the ideal size, speed, and talent for the position. However, he is just not that consistent. Injuries have slowed him down, and he never seems to finish the season as well as he started it.
Having said that, there’s no denying that he had a fantastic 2015 season. Jones caught 136 passes for over 1,800 yards and eight touchdowns. With Calvin Johnson having an off year, and the likes of Dez Bryant and Jordy Nelson on injured reserve, Jones ascended to become one of the best in the league.
Running Back: Le’Veon Bell
Unlike almost everyone else on this list, Bell’s spot was not earned in 2015. Between a suspension and a season-ending injury, Le’Veon Bell barely played last season. With all transparency, this spot belongs to Adrian Peterson. Bell’s positioning is based on opinion alone. Bell has the rare combination of size, speed, physicality, and agility. The way that Bell is able to dance in and out of cuts, bowl over defenders, and run over defensive backs is remarkably impressive. If the Pittsburgh Steelers are going to be contenders in 2016, they’ll need Bell to be the best back in the league like he was in 2014.
Quarterback: Tom Brady
All off-season long, the debate about the best quarterback in the league has been raging. In 2015, Cam Newton won both the Offensive Player of the Year and the Most Valuable Player awards. Even on the NFL Network’s Top 100 series, Cam Newton was number one, while Tom Brady took home the silver.
While Brady didn’t have the rushing success that Newton did, Brady threw for more yards, more touchdowns, fewer interceptions, and he did so under peculiar circumstances. While the biggest feather in Newton’s hat was that he had the success that he had without any weapons, Brady may have been worse off. Obviously that seems silly, as Tom Brady plays with Gronkowski, who we have already established as the best tight end in football, but sometimes you have to look a little deeper.
Cam Newton didn’t have stud wide receiver Kelvin Benjamin in 2015, and that was definitely a huge hit. But he wasn’t alone. Newton still had the extremely capable tight end, Greg Olsen, who was second only to Gronkowski in yardage for all tight ends in 2015. Even with injuries to Gronkowski and Julian Edelman, Brady was still able to put up the best numbers of any quarterback.
And unlike the Panthers, New England didn’t have a dominant defense or running game. While the Panthers were the second-best rushing team in the league, the Patriots were 30th. Jonathan Stewart, Carolina’s leading rusher, had 286 more yards than LeGarrette Blount, New England’s leading rusher. And while the Panthers had the best defense in football, Tom Brady brought his Patriots to the AFC Championship Game for the fifth year in a row with the ninth-best defense.
Check out the All-NFL Team Defense.
