2019 AP All-Pro Team

[JWL]

By not even tabulating their own votes correctly, DeAndre Hopkins was given a 1st team spot instead of Julio Jones, Derrick Henry was kept off the 1st team, and Marcus Peters and Marlon Humphrey were given 1st team spots instead of Richard Sherman and Justin Simmons.

interesting

Based on the votes, the voters had to select one quarterback, one running back, two wide receivers, one tight end, two tackles, two guards and a center. This totals 10 players. Then they had to select an 11th player for the "flex" slot. The votes indicate this had to be a running back, wide receiver or tight end.

I have often made my own All-Pro teams in recent years and would share them with a few people with Reaser being one of them. In the past couple years I would essentially do the flex thing without calling it that. I had one running back and three wide receivers in several recent years. This year I am leaning towards two running backs and two wide receivers because I feel the second best RB is more deserving than the 3rd best WR.

When I submit my team to a few people for perusal, I will not be identifying my 2nd RB as a flex guy. They are both on my all-pro team. It is very uncomplicated. Also, obviously since it is a 1-voter team, it should not be complicated.

The Associated Press, however, chose to complicate things. 45 of their voters deemed Christian McCaffrey worthy of a spot. 27 decided he was their RB and 18 picked him at "flex". Based on how the AP kept their votes separate, it means 18 probably saw McCaffrey as the 2nd best RB.

If one voter put Henry at RB and McCaffrey at flex it was handled differently than someone who put McCaffrey at RB and Henry at flex. I'm saying these votes should have been combined.

Any reader may still be confused here. I am on a break at work and trying to rush through this. Let me present the votes.

Total votes for flex eligibles with flex votes in parentheses-
45- McCaffrey (18)
27- Henry (7)
3- Aaron Jones (3)
2- Chubb (0)
2- Cook (1)
1- Ekeler (1)

34- Kittle (1)
23- Kelce (6)
1- Waller (1)

50- M. Thomas (0)
21- J. Jones (5)
18- Hopkins (0)
16- Godwin (2)
3- Kupp (3)
2- Golladay (1)
1- Edelman (1)
1- Allen (1)

More voters found Julio Jones to have been deserving of the 2019 All-Pro team than DeAndre Hopkins yet Hopkins gets 1st-team honors and Jones does not!

Based on the votes, the 2019 AP All-Pro 1st team "skill position" guys should be McCaffrey, Henry, Kittle, Thomas, and Jones. We what officially have been saddled with instead is McCaffrey, McCaffrey, Kittle, Thomas, and Hopkins.

The "flex" should have existed solely as a function to let the 50 voters pick a RB, WR, or TE in the position void as they saw fit. From there, common sense should have been applied and then a sensible presenting of the 1st team and 2nd team/others receiving votes.

[JWL]

Based on total votes (the figure on the left), you look at the top RB, two top WRs, and top TE. Those are McCaffrey, Thomas, Jones, and Kittle. Remove them and we are left with this-

27- Henry (7)
3- Aaron Jones (3)
2- Chubb (0)
2- Cook (1)
1- Ekeler (1)

23- Kelce (6)
1- Waller (1)

18- Hopkins (0)
16- Godwin (2)
3- Kupp (3)
2- Golladay (1)
1- Edelman (1)
1- Allen (1)

These are all the remaining flex-eligible players. The one with the most total votes is Henry. Therefore, he should be on the 1st team. He should be called a running back. Nobody should be actually designated as a "flex".

The mechanism for choosing a "flex" is fine but labeling a player as such is absolutely absurd. To make this easier if I was running this thing, I would not use the term. I would give the voters the following ballot for the offensive positions-
QB-
RB-
WR-
WR-
TE-
RB, WR, or TE-
LT-
LG-
C-
RG-
RT

Why complicate things?

Now what we have are some people who will say, "I don't care if the sky is blue, the Associated Press said it is yellow, so it is yellow" and we will have other people who will say, "Their votes said the sky is blue, so even though they want to say it is yellow, I'm going with their votes and concluding the sky is blue."

I contend that anyone accepting Hopkins as a true 1st-teamer is somebody who will agree the sky is yellow.