The AP All-Pro Teams were announced today and there was a disgusting amount, or lack thereof, of Baltimore Ravens’ player representation.
ICYMI: The AP All-Pro Teams are officially here. For the most part, the teams are pretty well organized, albeit they are far from perfect. A personal aside is the lack of a tight end on the Second-Team list when former Baltimore Raven and currently Las Vegas Raider Darren Waller was snubbed after a historically dominant season. This should rub Ravens Flock the wrong way, as his redemption story was one that fans have been cheering on.
Focusing more on the Ravens’ side of things, however, there was a slew of players who were ultimately disrespected and did not receive an appearance on either the First or Second-Team All-Pro lists.
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The biggest snub is Marlon Humphrey by a mile and a half. Humphrey only recorded one interception on the year, a number that likely factored into the voting, but he paced the league with eight forced fumbles at the cornerback position. The man we’ve come to know and love as “Fruit Punch” mastered the punch out that was perfected by Chicago Bears legend Charles Tillman. It’s unbelievable that Humphrey was shorted this, especially when he continued to lock down opposing wide receivers for much of the year. When Humphrey was off, it was because his opponent either got lucky or matched Humphrey’s skill.
Orlando Brown Jr. was another surprising omission. “Zeus Jr.” was a well-established right tackle who moved to the left side of the line after Ronnie Stanley went down with a nasty season-ending ankle injury. It took a bit to readjust to being on the left side, but Brown Jr. became a stout protector and was easily Baltimore’s most reliable offensive lineman. Brown Jr. was the driving force for the league’s number one rushing offense for the second year in a row.
Long snapper Morgan Cox made the First-Team list, while kicker Justin Tucker made the Second-Team. Admittedly, Jason Sanders, the First-Team kicker, has had a stellar year. It nonetheless is difficult to rank him ahead of Tucker, who nailed ~90% of his field-goal attempts (two of three misses came from beyond 50-yards) and missed just one PAT on 53 attempts.
If we wanted to nitpick we could complain that Patrick Queen didn’t receive any votes. Queen should be one of the front runners for the Defensive Rookie of the Year award and was no doubt a top-10 linebacker in the league. That should’ve at least garnered some votes. Yannick Ngakoue had a quietly productive season with both the Minnesota Vikings and the Ravens, notching eight sacks and four forced fumbles. Anyone who watched Ngakoue play this year knows that he was stellar.
At the end of the day, All-Pro nods are a nice accolade but the voting has been lackluster in recent years. The Baltimore Ravens were snubbed quite a bit and hopefully, this gives the team some extra incentive in the playoffs to show the voters they got it wrong.