Westbrook, Andrews Going to Hawaii

From the Inky:

Running back Brian Westbrook and right guard Shawn Andrews were named as Pro Bowl players today, the Eagles announced at a news conference at the NovaCare Complex.

Westbrook, who is fifth in the NFL in rushing with 1,191 yards and first in the league in yards from scrimmage with 1,896, was voted onto the team for the first time in his career. He played in the game after being as an alternate following the 2004 season.

Andrews, a fourth-year offensive guard, was voted onto the team for the second straight year.

Left off the Pro Bowl roster was defensive end Trent Cole, who is third in the league with 12 1/2 sacks. Cole is a first alternate. Safety Brian Dawkins, a six-time Pro Bowl player, is a second alternate.

Seems fair.  Westbrook and Cole got that far on merit.  Dawkins and Andrews did it on reputation this time around.

Comments

[Andrew]

Seems fair? Osi Umeniyora is not a better player than Trent Cole. His stats are lesser, they are puffed up by going against Winston Justice for 5 of his 12 sacks, AND they are puffed up by having Strahan on the opposite side.

Trent Cole got jobbed. So did William Thomas, who is a far better player now than Walter Jones or Flozell Adams (Marc Colombo should be going from the Cowboys, not Adams).

[Me]

And the Giants are headed to the playoffs while the Eagles are headed home. Trent has had a great year, but Osi also has the track record in his favor.

The Flozell pick is a joke, but these things happen when your team is burning through the league. Fan voting is stupid, too.

Chris Samuels was the best left tackle I watched this year.

[Andrew]

Look at the Footballoutsiders O-line stats.

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/ol.php

Philly is #4 in runs around left end and #1 in runs off left tackle at nearly a 6 ypc clip. That's Tra Thomas.

Dallas is #1 in runs around right end and #1 in runs off right tackle at 5.5 ypc. That's Marc Colombo (and Leonard Davis)

Chris Samuels may be playing well for DC, but it doesn't show in the running game as being any better than Detroit or the Giants on Left Tackle or the Cardinals on Right Tackle.

I know FO doesn't make public their sack stats, nor does STATS Inc., but my count of Tra Thomas this year is just 3 sacks surrendered.

Walter Jones is an even bigger joke in the Pro-Bowl than Flozell. And how do you take 3 Left Tackles and no Right Tackles as all-stars anyway?

As to Umeniyora, what track record? His one good year in 2005? Cole's been in the league two fewer years and played 25 fewer games (45 to 70) than Osi, and yet he's got 176 tackles to Osi's 222, and 25.5 sacks to Osi's 40.5. Cole is just as good a pass rusher, if not better, and is certainly a better run defender (Philly is #6 against runs off left tackle vs. #20 for the Giants). Half of Osi's sacks are from the Winston Justice Special night. How can you make All-Pro off something like that? Don't defend the indefensible. Cole got jobbed.

[Me]

I'm not saying Cole didn't deserve to make it, but all things being close to equal the guy who has had more than one good season and plays for the better team is going to be the one going to Hawaii. That doesn't seem unfair to me.

As for Thomas, we all know that left tackles are paid to keep the QB clean. Samuels completely shut down Cole this season, and did so mostly by himself in impressive fashion. The guy's really good.

It's not fair, but McNabb's been sacked a lot this year and the perception is that he hasn't had great protection. That's going to hurt you -- even if you're not the problem and in fact played better than the other guy on your line who did get to go.

For my money, the guy who truly got jobbed is Mike Patterson. The guy has far better numbers than Williams #2 and Harris. And the Bears' defense sucks.

Now that's a hose job.