Outlook for Ngata not-so-rosy in early Pro Bowl balloting
Following up on Mike Preston’s previous post, I recently received early voting results for the Pro Bowl in February, and Ravens defensive tackle Haloti Ngata is not one of the top five vote-getters at his position in the AFC.
The top five are Tennessee’s Albert Haynesworth (206,925 votes), Pittsburgh’s Casey Hampton (86,352), Buffalo’s Marcus Stroud (80,981), New York’s Kris Jenkins (74,343) and Cleveland’s Shaun Rogers (72,950).
Ngata has more tackles than Hampton, Stroud and Jenkins. He has one sack compared to Hampton’s zero, and leads the entire group in interceptions with two.
I asked Ngata about the lack of respect, and befitting his humble nature, Ngata downplayed the early results.
"That doesn’t even matter to me," he said today. "We’ve got a lot of things we need to worry about, and that’s just way back in terms of my priorities. I’m just trying to help the team win a game and get better and better every week."
Fan votes make up one-third of final Pro Bowl results. Players’ votes count for one-third, and coaches’ votes count for the final one-third. While players and coaches will vote Dec. 11-12, polls for fans are open until Tuesday, Dec. 9. Fans can go to NFL.com/probowl to vote.
In other Pro Bowl news, inside linebacker Ray Lewis, free safety Ed Reed and fullback Le’Ron McClain lead in voting at their respective positions in the AFC. Lewis has collected 168,566 votes, which is 66,041 more than Pittsburgh’s James Farrior. Reed’s 133,666 votes more than double the 58,803 votes Tennessee’s Michael Griffin has garnered. And McClain has almost 16,000 more votes than Tennessee’s Ahmard Hall.
Outside linebacker Terrell Suggs has earned 112,110 votes, which ranks fourth behind Miami’s Joey Porter (151,463), Tennessee’s Keith Bulluck (117,856) and Pittsburgh’s James Harrison (117,728).
Linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo is fourth among special teams players with 38,982 votes. Pittsburgh’s Anthony Madison (47,147), New England’s Larry Izzo (43,462) and Miami’s Patrick Cobbs (41,895) are ahead of Ayanbadejo.
Cornerback Chris McAlister – who is on injured reserve after undergoing surgery on his right knee – is fifth with 63,378 votes. He trails Denver’s Champ Bailey (153,765), Tennessee’s Cortland Finnegan (105,251), San Diego’s Antonio Cromartie (104,958) and Oakland’s Nnamdi Asomugha (79,408).
Comments
letting the fans vote is a bit of a joke to me. if pro bowl voting ended today, the redskins would be sending 20 players to hawaii. ridiculous.
ray deserves it, so does ngata.
Posted by: bmore | November 20, 2008 3:08 PM
i love how reed is crushing the saftey spot and has bearly done anything all year...oh well i would be happy if he goes
Posted by: mike | November 20, 2008 3:50 PM
Don't get me started on how much of a joke pro-bowl voting is. Buddy Lee led ALL NFL DEFENSIVE LINEMAN IN TACKLES last year as a nose tackle and didn't even get close. Its ridiculous.
Posted by: Anonymous | November 20, 2008 4:59 PM
Who cares, we know he's great. We dont want him playing in that phony game anyway. In regards to the top voters,
Haynesworth - this is right on, he's the best DT in the league
Hampton - has had a nice career, but this is a little bit of name recognition
Stroud - Has anyone seen Buff's run defense lately?
Jenkins - this guy may be more deserving than Haloti...I was hoping the Raves went after him to fortify the interior
Rogers - This guy is big & noticable on TV. Im not really that impressed.
Posted by: Cereal Blogger | November 20, 2008 6:14 PM
There is no way that Ed Reed deserves to be on the Pro Bowl list this year. It is obvious that Reed is not physically 100 percent this year. He was thrown around like a ragdoll by Brandon Jacobs.
Posted by: Firststater | November 20, 2008 8:07 PM
Pro Bowl voting is a joke.
While Ngata isn't where he should be, I'd put him about third or fourth on the list anyway. Haynesworth is playing out of his mind, and Jenkins isn't too bad. Hampton's been injured for part of the season and hasn't done much.
Ed Reed hasn't done diddly. Not sure why he's up there.
And James Harrison is third in outside linebacker voting? He almost doubles Porter's tackle total, has one less sack, a safety, a pick, and a forced fumble, all things Porter doesn't have on his resume. Name recognition is ruling here, and it's pathetic.
Fan voting is all name recognition. The NFL should rig it to send those actually deserving. Champ Bailey at first place? He's still a top corner, but Asomugha is lights out this year. And Cromartie shouldn't be anywhere near Hawaii.
Posted by: Andrew | November 21, 2008 12:16 PM
The pro bowl voting is almost as ludacris as Bob Sanders winning defensive MVP with sub par stats. It's a traveshamockery when you think about it.
Posted by: Anonymous | November 21, 2008 2:18 PM
Pro bowl voting will be just like the recent election results..........name recognition and a popularity contest only! "the true deserving canidates" will lose! its simply wrong!
Posted by: Pittsville Pete | November 22, 2008 10:42 AM
Let me tell you this. Bannnan is no Kelly Gregg. If Gregg was in there Nagata and suggs would be leauge leaders in sacks!
Posted by: drew | November 22, 2008 2:55 PM