Thursday, December 20, 2007

Simply put, Fred Taylor deserves to be in the Pro Bowl

Even though we just had our Pro Bowl Snubs post, I would like to specifically look at one of those snubs in Fred Taylor and break down his case as to why he should playing in Hawaii in February.


Is this 2007 or 1997? You would think it would be '97 with the way Fred Taylor is playing this season. Taylor has been very productive this season, especially the last 4 games.

Taylor has put up 1,091 yards rushing on 216 carries, with a 5.1 avg. His last 4 games have been phenomenal, 487 yards, 71 carries, 6.8 avg. Taylor also has the AFC's two longest TD runs of 80 and 76 yards.

Taylor is 6th in the league in rushing. Willie Parker has 104 more carries than Taylor but still only had 226 more yards. Joseph Addai has more carries and still less yards than Taylor. Taylor still had Maurice Jones-Drew on his team and Parker and Addai are by themselves.

Some can say what did Taylor do the first half of the season? But just look at Addai's last 6 games:

Last Six Games:
Taylor: 617 yards, 107 carries, 5.7 avg.
Addai: 315 yards, 102 carries, 3.0 avg.

Also, Taylor is 6th in the league in rushing, still has 35 less carries, and still has more yards rushing than Addai, and I would like to mention Maurice Jone-Drew once again.

Not to mention, Taylor is 31 and still putting up more productive numbers than the 24 year old Addai. Taylor deserves it more, over 10,000 yards in his career and no Pro Bowl? I think he'll never make a Pro Bowl and will be the first HOF to never make a Pro Bowl. Taylor's been there all year and is helping get this Jags team into the playoffs. Fred Taylor deserves to be in the Pro Bowl, simply put.

3 comments:

Joey Kaufman said...

How the hell did Taylor miss this again. I don't really even like Taylor or the Jags all that much but this is just pathetic.

Anonymous said...

The good news (if one can call it that) is that Taylor more than likely will be the sub for an injured Willie Parker.

However, Taylor has had the problem of not being one of the top 4 RBs in the AFC in any given year. That doesn't mean he sucks it just means that he is at a disadvantage because of the AFC' abundance of great running backs over Taylor's career. Look at some of the names: Holmes, L.Johnson, R.Johnson, LT, Portis, Ricky Williams, Edgerrin James...the list goes on and on.

This year I dont think Taylor is any different. He is a great running back who is just 4th best in the AFC. Yes, his ypc is great and yes he is having a great year as an older RB, but seriously all 3 guys chosen above him deserve it.

(1) LT, no one debates this one
(2) Parker, at the time he was leading the NFL in rushing yards, you can't leave him off the roster
(3) Addai. 14 total TDs, 300 more yards receiving all in a total of 13 games. You could debate it, but that scoring proliferation over Taylor gets him in (and I don't want to hear the whole MJD stole his TDs, because that is the situation he is in and if Taylor were that great Del Rio would be giving him the ball in those situations so MJD is the better back in that situation, a slight knock on Taylor in my mind.)

Anonymous said...

The biggest jobs of Taylor's career were his rookie season where he had 17 tds and like 1300 yards and was beaten out by Eddie George (not a good year) and Curtis Martin (then with the Pats) or 2000 when Corey Dillon beat him out.