/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/57797359/879702962.jpg.0.jpg)
If there’s one thing every Falcons fan loves, it’s getting riled up at the national media and/or other fans for not recognizing how great Atlanta is. That’s a thing we all love, right? Right?
As always, we know that Pro Bowl voting is largely a sham and not particularly significant, but it is still recognition of a job well done for players. In years where the Falcons have been terrific and have gotten very few Pro Bowlers, it’s difficult not to be annoyed by the way voters tend to favor familiar faces from other teams, and that’s certainly the case this year. To wit:
No #Falcons players currently lead Pro Bowl voting at their respective position. pic.twitter.com/tlctVEsngF
— Justin Felder (@Justin_FOX5) November 29, 2017
The thing is, there aren’t really that many glaring oversights here. Julio Jones should be there ahead of Adam Thielen, sure, but that wasn’t necessarily the case until last week’s huge game catapulted him past Thielen in just about every category. He’s objectively a better receiver, but whatever. I also find it more than a little difficult to believe that Darius Slay is a better choice than Desmond Trufant, but Tru has missed a little time. Keanu Neal, Grady Jarrett, and Alex Mack have the misfortune of playing at positions where there’s one otherworldly player ahead of them, and Matt Ryan simply hasn’t put up the numbers necessary to win over fans.
Ultimately, I still think you’ll see five or six Falcons heading to the Pro Bowl (or skipping it, if we’re lucky), so even if you like being outraged at this state of affairs, you probably don’t need to be. I’ll still stump for Julio Jones every day of the week, though.