Vontae Davis Snubbed in All-Pro Voting

The Associated Press has released this year’s NFL All-Pro roster, but not without controversy. For Colts fans, the biggest snub of the year has to be Vontae Davis.

The pool of voters are 50 members of the media and released by the Associated Press.

Revis led the voting with 42, closely followed by Sherman’s 41 to make the first team. Harris had nine votes while Grimes had four to round out the second team. Davis received just two.

The All-Pro is generally a better representation of talent in the NFL than, say, the Pro Bowl but this year the list is awfully perplexing.

Somehow D’Qwell Jackson managed to get one vote (likely based solely off reputation from years past). Its clear that the people who vote for this are not watching football as closely as they should be.

Too many players gain votes on name recognition alone while others somehow make the list twice. J.J. Watt was named first team as a defensive end and second team as a defensive tackle. Watt is officially listed as a defensive end, so why should he get votes as a DT?

There is also the issue with offensive tackle. Its happened for years, but no right tackles made the All-Pro. Left and right tackle are vastly different positions, that should be clear simply based on the higher salaries of the guys lining up on the left side.

At cornerback, four other players were deemed better than Davis. Richard Sherman, Darrelle Revis, and Chris Harris Jr. are all worthy candidates and its easy to argue that all three are better than Davis. But Brent Grimes from Miami somehow made this roster and that is perplexing to say the least.

Anyone who has watched every Colts game this season knows not only how important Davis has been but also just how outstanding his play was this season.

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Stats and grades via Pro Football Focus.

The rankings in the graph are based on off the grades given by PFF. Everything here indicates that Davis should have been a lock for All-Pro and likely a first team candidate.

No other cornerback in the NFL produced a lower passer rating and Davis had the lowest completion percentage by a significant margin.

It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that Davis had the best season of any cornerback in the NFL. He missed roughly two-and-a-half games, but even still he should have made All-Pro over Grimes.

The simple fact that Grimes gave up seven touchdowns (tied for eighth most in the NFL among corners) should have ruled him out of a single vote. Aqib Talib and Joe Haden both received a vote for the roster and either one would have been a better choice to make the cut.

While it may be disappointing for Davis not to earn this postseason honor, it’s clear that he’d would prefer to be playing in January while Grimes watches the playoffs from his home.

The voters did get two things right: Pat McAfee and Adam Vinatieri made the first team All-Pro roster.