DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Pro-Bowl selections announced Tuesday 4PM on NFL network.

from espn's mike sando

No Pro Bowlers from NFC South

December 18, 2007 5:31 PM


Posted by ESPN.com's Mike Sando

I've had a chance to break down the Pro Bowl selections a few ways. We have zero Pro Bowl players from the NFC South this season. Zero! Also, the Jets, Lions and Jaguars failed to place players in the Pro Bowl, even as specialists.

Here is the breakdown by division:

NFC East (17): Seven starters, nine backups, one specialist

NFC North (15): Nine starters, four backups, two specialists

AFC West (12): Five starters, five backups, two specialists

AFC North (11): Three starters, seven backups, one specialist

AFC East (10): Eight starters, two backups, zero specialists

NFC West (10): Six starters, three backups, one specialist

AFC South (9): Six starters, two backups, one specialist

NFC South (0): None





no pro bowlers for a whole division

Good job on behalf of Cribb's and Edwards, they freaking deserved it. But so did all the others like Winsow, Steiner, and JT, jesus he plays like a damn Vet already. But I'm not worrying, they will all make it eventually, it's inevitable. Joe Thomas will be a pro-bowler for years.


And don't get me started on that fat slob named Ogden they name into the probowl every year, oh brother....

On the issue of Fred Taylor, he is EXTREMELY underrated, if I remember correctly the guy has about 10,000 yards and he's never been to Hawaii???

That is just one of the prime examples in a laundry long list of mistakes.

Quote:

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Jonathan Ogden

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He is the Roger Clemens of the AFC (play half a season and make the pro-bowl). He has played a grand total of 8 games (and Not that Great when he was in there). JMHO Go Brownies!!!

How do Steinbach and Joe T. not make the Pro Bowl?
Ogden over Joe? F-off..........

Go Kamakazi, GO! Congrats to BE. To DA, Steiner (robbed,) K2 (robbed,) and all the players, the team, RAC & the coaches, Phil and everyone involved. It wasn't that long ago we had no team, no coach, no season, no FO and certainly no Pro-Bowl players. Now go beat Cincy and show 'em you're serious about owning the division again.

He is worthy-- glad to see some Browns. I voted twice for Clay Matthews--but I am old fashioned.

I thought some of our players were slighted, until I looked over some of the stats. I think they did do a reasonable job with the exception of Ogden.

I had a problem with Addai, I felt his rushing numbers weren't nearly as good as others. I then looked at his receptions and TDs, IMO he does deserve it. Parker? He does lead in rushing, but I do think Taylor deserves it more. He has less yards but is averaging 5.1 ypc.

I thought Bray should have been a shoe in, but then I looked at some other receivers. There are quite a few with exceptional numbers. They could have voted in a couple different ones that are deserving.

Winslow is one of the best TEs, period. The problem is he has two great ones he is competing against who both have more catches and TDs. Winslow has a higher average per catch, not to mention he is not the only option in our offense where Gates basically is and Gonzo has only one real good reciever. I can understand that vote, even though I disagree.

I read where someone said we were shafted (something to that effect) because we have the best line and no pro bowlers. I felt the same way until we got two alternates. The Pats have three on the team and I scoffed at that. I knew they have the best pass offense but didn't realize how well the fared on the ground as well. They can use the very same arguement as us.

I understand Saturday, but never expected the guy from the Bills. Is he really that good? I never even heard of that guy.

I understand why Dawson was picked lower than he was. If the voting was done after this past weekend I bet he would have gotten a bunch more love.

As for DA....I am thrilled for him. He has stepped into a bad situation and has gotten a lot of love from his peers. We all have different opinions on him that cross the entire spectrum but I know we all are elated for him.

For not having anyone coming out of their division, Ronde Barber has better stats than one of the selected people at his position. Barber is an established Pro Bowler having a Pro Bowl worthy season and got slighted. I was really surprised by that.

Well it's good to see Josh and Braylon make the trip to Hawaii. I'm going to reach out to both of them as well as Vrabel who was a classmate at Walsh. I'll report back. Aloha!

Congrates to Cribbs & Edwards.....and to the rest of the deserving Browns players...Remember, Hawaii is nice, but where else will 70,000+ screaming fans come out to cheer you on in a blizzard....Yep...Cleveland...You guys are loved & respected in Cleveland

Pro bowls are nice, Home town respect is where it's at...

I'm proud of this year's team.. I really am. They have worked so hard, and all the media attention they are getting collectively as a team is WELL deserved.

Good job guys!!!

Former greats talk of Edwards
Steve King, Staff Writer
12.18.2007

http://www.clevelandbrowns.com/article.php?id=7990

When it comes to the three most "recent" Pro Bowl wide receivers from the Browns, there's some definite lineage.

They're all connected.

Braylon Edwards, with his selection to the Pro Bowl, becomes the first Browns wideout to be so honored since Webster Slaughter following the 1989 season. It was the only time that Slaughter made it as a Brown. He later did so in 1993 as a member of the Houston Oilers.

And before Edwards, you have to go all the way back to Pro Football Hall of Famer Paul Warfield, who went after the 1969 season, to find a Browns wideout in the Pro Bowl. That was so long ago that the game hadn't been moved to Hawaii yet. It was still being held in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

It was the second straight year and the third time overall that Warfield had gone -- and it would be his last trip as a Brown since he was dealt to the Miami Dolphins about a week after the game.

After helping the Dolphins to three straight Super Bowl appearances -- and two victories -- and then spending a short stint in the ill-fated World Football League -- Warfield returned to the Browns for the 1976 and '77 seasons before retiring.

He came back to the Browns a third time from 1985-87, serving as director of player relations. He also did some scouting for the Browns then, and his big catch was delivering Slaughter to the club.

Here's what happened: The Browns did not have a first-round pick in the 1986 NFL Draft, having traded it to the Buffalo Bills as part of the compensation for getting the first overall selection in the 1985 NFL Supplemental Draft. The Browns used that choice to take quarterback Bernie Kosar.

But the Browns needed to get some weapons for Kosar. They had future Hall of Fame tight end Ozzie Newsome, but they weren't sure about their wideouts. They had no idea that Brian Brennan, the second of two fourth-round draft picks in 1984, and Reggie Langhorne, an obscure seventh-rounder in '85 out of tiny Elizabeth City, would turn out as well as they did. But even if they had foreseen the future with those two players, they still needed a prime downfield threat.

That's hard to find anytime, but it's especially difficult without the benefit of a first-round choice. So Browns head coach Marty Schottenheimer gave Warfield an assignment: Find a talented wide receiver who, for whatever reason, would fall to the middle of the second round and would be available for the Browns to tab at No. 43 overall.

He came up with Slaughter from San Diego State. He may not have been a Warfield, but, in his six Browns seasons, he was pretty good. On the team's career receiving charts, he ranks seventh in catches with 305, sixth in yards with 4,834 (Warfield is fourth with 5,210) and seventh in touchdowns with 27 (Warfield is second with 52).

Warfield is in back with the Browns once more, as he is now in his fourth season as senior advisor to general manager Phil Savage. But his duties extend beyond the front office, as pointed out by Warfield's old Browns teammate, former wideout Gary Collins, who was in Cleveland last weekend to take in the game with the Buffalo Bills.

"Braylon is a great receiver," Collins said. "He reminds me of a big Paul Warfield. You can tell by the way he moves on a football field that Paul has had a lot of influence on him."

Warfield says Edwards is definitely deserving of going to the Pro Bowl.

"Very much so," said the former Warren (Ohio) Harding High School and Ohio State star. "Braylon came off a year last year he perhaps wasn't completely happy with, and you could see his intensity during the (spring and summer). His intensity has been steadfast throughout this entire year in terms of his wanting to improve and help this ballclub improve. He's been an integral part of this team's success with his ability to make key plays in key situations."

According to Warfield, Edwards' maturity is a prime reason the Michigan product has made the jump.

"That's abig part of it," he said. "He's more focused. I think he's more serious.

"That's not to say he wasn't entirely serious and focused the last two years. But there's atransition and growing pains, to a certain extent, in coming from the college level to get a feel from the environment, to learn the players, to understand what you can do in certain situations and start to build on that. I think he's starting to move forward in those areas."

The third season is when a lot of receivers seem to come into their own, so it makes sense that it's happening now for Edwards, in his third year after being the No. 3 overall pick in the 2005 draft.

"It's coming together at the right time," Warfield said. "The team is maturing, the team is winning and he's making a major contribution. I don't think there could be a better situation for him and certainly for the Browns.

"We look to him to make plays, and he is capable of making plays."

Just as was the case when Warfield played for the Browns, and just as was the case when Slaughter was in Cleveland. Even though Slaughter is living in the Houston area -- Missouri City, Tex., to be exact -- he still follows the Browns and as such knows all about Edwards and the way he's connected to him.

"I just mentioned to my nephew the other day that the Browns hadn't had a wide receiver make the Pro Bowl since I played with them," Slaughter said. "That really surprises me. I certainly wouldn't have guessed it back then. I thought they would have had one a lot sooner than now.

"I've gotten to watch Braylon some since he's been with the Browns, but I know more about him from having seen him play in college. He came out of college as a great wide receiver and is doing an excellent job this season with the Browns.

"He's been helped by the fact that the system is better. The quarterback can get him the ball. He's got other good receivers around him. The running game is better, and the line is doing a good job. When you add it all up, it has given him the opportunity to make all these big plays."

Which have been a big key in the Browns' resurgence overall this season.

"It's just so exciting that the Browns are back on track now," Slaughter said. "I'm happy for the fans. I've always said that Browns fans are the best I ever played in front of.

"I was just watching CNN and they had this special report about the fans who went to see the Bills game. Their hair and beards were all white because of the snow. Yet when the reporter asked them if they were going to leave at halftime, they all said no.

"Cleveland is a hard-working town, and the people there expect their football players to do the same. And when you work hard and produce for them, they love you."

And by the way, the nephew Slaughter referred to is Louis Rankin, a 6-foot-1, 205-pound running back who came out of the ex-receiver's hometown of Stockton, Cal. and, as a senior this season, led the University of Washington in rushing yards with 1,256 while averaging 5.6 yards a carry and scoring six TDs. Slaughter said he will soon begin working with him to get him ready for the NFL Scouting Combine in two months.

Warfield has no doubt helped the Browns scout Rankin. And if they were to draft him, then he would become a teammate of Edwards.

Should that happen, the Warfield-Slaughter-Edwards lineage in Cleveland would be extended one more step.

Cribbs fulfills crazy dream
Zac Jackson, Staff Writer
http://www.clevelandbrowns.com/article.php?id=7995
12.18.2007
Another day, another one of those you-gotta-be-crazy-to-even-dream-that goals accomplished.

Joshua Cribbs, Pro Bowler. And letting it all soak in.

"It sounds good, I have to admit," Cribbs said. "I would like to be modest all the time, but I love that title. Pro Bowl player Josh Cribbs."

Official word that he would represent the Browns and the AFC as the kick returner on Feb. 10 came Tuesday afternoon, and Cribbs couldn't help but smile. But the undrafted college quarterback turned kamikaze cover man turned elite return man also wants everyone to know that he's not done yet.

"I'm glad to be where I am today," he said. "I'm going to use this day to just celebrate and be happy. Tomorrow morning, it's Cincinnati all the way."

The playoffs loom, and Cribbs knows he'll be a big part of whatever success the Browns have from here on out. He's delivered all season -- for three seasons now, really -- and the stage he's really been waiting for is now one win away.

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A huge part of this Hawaii-bound success story starts in Las Vegas, at a now-defunct college all-star game for mid-level and mid-major prospects. That's where Cribbs, a record-setting running quarterback at Kent State, first took the field as a wide receiver in January, 2005.

"It wasn't real pretty," recalls Browns' Midwestern scout Kevin Kelly. "He really didn't understand what he was doing, and he was doing it in a line full of guys who had been playing receiver for years."

Cribbs knew how to play football, though, and that's why Kelly kept watching him. Kelly had seen Cribbs in person during his final college season. He knew Cribbs was a dangerous runner, and he'd certainly taken notice that a Kent State team that quite frankly wasn't very good was winning a few games, mostly because Cribbs wouldn't allow it to lose.

"His athletic ability, his competitiveness, his instincts, they all stood out," Kelly said. "You'd watch him in Las Vegas, and he didn't understand how to release off the line or run a route. But a defensive back would come right up on him, and he understood he needed to beat the guy in front of him.

"He'd do it, then turn the wrong way. The pass would be coming with the ball behind him on his left hip, and he'd reach back and catch it.

"It was like 'no problem, I'll figure it out.' "

Looking back on that experience Tuesday, Cribbs said he initially figured someone in the Browns' organization had to know something about him, if for no other reason than Kent's proximity to Cleveland. The extra attention pretty much sealed it.

"I remember talking to (Kelly) in Las Vegas," Cribbs said. "He told me 'if anybody is trying to recruit you at QB, they're lying to you. You're gonna be a receiver and a special teams player, and you're gonna play in the NFL.'

"That honesty is ultimately what convinced me, hey, they're gonna take a look at me. That was my best bet."

Kelly said all of the Browns' scouts, all the way through Phil Savage, liked what they saw from Cribbs. Once they sweated out the final two rounds of the draft -- "having drafted a receiver (Braylon Edwards) in the first round, it was going to be hard to draft another one," Kelly said -- they moved to sign Cribbs and keep him away from the other interested teams.

Even then, there were no guarantees he would make the team. He would try to learn the receiver position and try to cover kicks; Kelly said there wasn't even a guarantee he would get a chance to return kicks.

"That tells you something about scouting in general," Kelly said. "You can't grade what's inside of a person, and that's what separates our best players. Whether they're drafted in the first round like Braylon, the sixth round like Tom Brady or undrafted like Josh, you look at the Pro Bowl and it's just the burning desire in their bellies. Those guys are internally motivated to succeed and they're winners.

"To me, it's just about getting guys you know are players. When you sort it out, you can't have enough of them. You better have tough guys that really can do it."

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The proof is in the numbers -- and the soon to be purchased plane tickets for Honolulu -- that Cribbs can do it. This year's new challenges, playing a bigger role on offense and a full-time role as the punt returner, haven't stopped him from leading the NFL in kick return average or tying for the team lead in special teams tackles.

And the Las Vegas story falls in line with so many others. The part of the big-picture story that he'd never returned kicks before the NFL is slightly exaggerated; he just hadn't done it since he played for a pee-wee team called the Woodridge Warriors, where he did a little bit of everything in leading his team from Southeast Washington D.C. to the Pop Warner Super Bowl in Florida.

As a junior in high school, Cribbs lost his starting quarterback's job due to a midseason ankle injury. He was healthy enough to at least give coming back for the season-ending City Championship Game a shot, but no coach in his right mind would replace a senior quarterback who'd won four of five games since Cribbs' injury and piloted his team there

So Cribbs played six plays, all on special teams, as Dunbar won the second of what would become three straight City titles.

"Josh was very intelligent, very driven, always had a plan," Dunbar High coach Craig Jefferies said last year. "He had values. He was dedicated. Whatever he made up his mind that he was going to do, there was a reason. He made a commitment.

"Josh sold himself. He came to me and asked to be put on the kickoff team, whatever he needed to do to be on the field. He wanted to play. If he could only play special teams, he was going to play on special teams with all he had.

"He always wanted to play safety, but I just couldn't let him. He'd run through a wall trying to hit people if he played defense. You should have seen when he would throw interceptions -- every guy that intercepted him, Josh would tackle. He would just crush the guy."

Kelly laughs about seeing some of the same things on Cribbs' college film. Syracuse had actually offered Cribbs a scholarship to play safety, but Cribbs turned that -- as well as a scholarship offer to steal bases and play outfield at Texas -- down because he wanted to play quarterback.

"There was no tape of him doing it, no way to know he could go down and knock people out as a gunner on punt team," Kelly said. "But anybody who spends five minutes with Josh Cribbs knows his will to win and his desire are very apparent.

"He passed every test."

He's found a home in Cleveland, and he's doing quite well for himself. Asked on Tuesday if the Pro Bowl selection would trigger an incentive clause in his contract, he vowed to put on his "reading glasses, read that fine print."

But he hasn't forgotten where he came from. Forty-five years ago, Mason Clark helped found the Woodridge Warriors pee-wee football program. Clark is still helping make it go today, and he still counts on Cribbs to lend a hand and visit the kids whenever possible.

When the Browns went to Baltimore last month, Clark visited Cribbs at the team hotel. He invited him to speak at a fundraiser in early February, just like he did last year, and Cribbs obliged.

Looks like they'll have to reschedule. Cribbs will be busy in Hawaii.

"This is where I wanted to be -- right now, where I am now," Cribbs said Tuesday. "I've always felt that chip on my shoulder, that I needed to prove myself. I feel like I'm on my way. I said I'll play anything, I don't care as long I'm in the NFL.

"Now, I'm a Pro Bowl player. Next year I'm going even higher."

Three Kent State Golden Flashes are starting for the AFC in the Pro Bowl. Cribbs at KR, Antonio Gates at TE, and James Harrison at LB.

Yeah, I heard the university is changing its motto to "Kent Read, Kent Right, but sure can play in the NFL."

The Jaguars, Buccaneers and Browns are a combined 28-14 this season. Tampa Bay has qualified already for the playoffs, while Jacksonville and Cleveland could do so as early as this weekend.

Still, the teams combined to land only one player on the Pro Bowl rosters that were announced today. For that, their coaches say:

Thank you, voters.

NFL coaches love nothing more than walking into their respective offices on Monday or Tuesday morning and finding a new motivational tool on the desk. It's the equivalent of you or me finding a $100 bill on the sidewalk. You can almost hear them addressing their teams:

Look, guys! The public, your peers and opposing coaches don't think you're good enough or deserving enough to be recognized for your accomplishments. And there's only one way to show them that they're wrong.

Tampa Bay is the only division champion that failed to land a player on the AFC or NFC roster, but maybe it shouldn't have been surprised considering no team from the NFC South had a player selected for the game. In fact, Tampa Bay and Jacksonville were among seven teams that were shut out in the voting. Wide receiver Braylon Edwards was the only member of the Browns to receive an invite to Honolulu.

As snubs go, the biggest was arguably Jacksonville running back Fred Taylor, a first alternate who has run for at least 100 yards in four consecutive games and ranks sixth overall with 1,091 yards. His average of 5.05 yards per carry is second in the league among rushers with at least 200 carries; his runs of 80 and 76 yards are the longest in the AFC this season; and his four touchdowns are twice as many as Pittsburgh running back Willie Parker, who leads the conference in rushing and is headed to Hawaii.

What's interesting about Taylor's situation is that he's the only player in league history who has run for at least 10,000 yards in his career yet failed to appear in a Pro Bowl. A case could be made that he is on the road to the Hall of Fame considering he needs just 40 more yards to move into 17th place on the league's all-time rushing list. Each of the top 16 who are eligible are members of the Hall.

For now, the AFC's running backs will be Parker, LaDainian Tomlinson of San Diego and Joseph Addai of Indianapolis.

Jaguars quarterback David Garrard also was left off the team, despite leading the league in touchdown-to-interception ratio at 8:1 -- he has thrown for 16 scores with just two picks -- and ranking second overall with a 101.6 passer rating. He lost out to New England's Tom Brady, Indianapolis' Peyton Manning and Pittsburgh's Ben Roethlisberger.

Another AFC quarterback who could grouse is Cleveland's Derek Anderson, who arguably has been the biggest surprise of the season. The Browns shopped him before the season, then put him in the lineup in the first half of the opener after Charlie Frye was benched (then traded the next week). All he has done is throw for 3,384 yards and 26 touchdowns with 14 interceptions. He also is third in the league with 49 completions of 20 or more yards, 13 of which have gone for touchdowns.

Tampa Bay quarterback Jeff Garcia ranks seventh in the league with seven touchdown passes of 20 or more yards, third in passer rating (93.6) and first in interception percentage (1.3). He arguably is the leading reason the Bucs have gone from 4-12 and last place to 9-5 and first place. Garcia, who came over from Philadelphia in the offseason, has brought stability and playmaking abilities to the team. He also has been a godsend for the defense, which did not land a Pro Bowl spot despite being tied for first in fewest points allowed. Among those overlooked: linebacker Derrick Brooks, who appeared in each of the previous 10 Pro Bowls, and cornerback Ronde Barber, who appeared in the previous three.

"We are very proud of each player's performance this year," Bucs coach Jon Gruden said on the team's website.

You can best believe his words will be a tad stronger when he meets with his squad Wednesday morning.....Jim Trotter itn.

I seen that also Was gonna coment , but got sidetracked

I`m happy for the players that have been recognized for their outstanding play...

I will be much happier if they go to Hawaii with a playoff game under their belt...

Need to whomp the bungholes....And hope for a Steelers and Tenn...loss...

NRTU

I'm happy for BE and Cribbs... but KW2, Steiny, and JT got screwed... DA I think should go as well IMO...

KW2 is having an outstanding year... and Steny and JT are leading the best left side of all football.. we're averaging over 5 yards per carry on the left side!!!

Another player who got ROYALLY screwed this year was Super Mario of the Texans... dude is a beast and has 13 sacks... I have no idea how the guy whose 2nd in the league with sacks didn't make it....

Did you go to Kent State?

Quote:

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"Kent Read, Kent Right, but sure can play in the NFL."

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That ranks awfully high on the unintentional comedy scale.

NRTU...but Fred Taylor will probably get in with Willie Parker's injury. Is he deserving, this year? In the words of Lee Corso..."not so fast, my friend". Jamal Lewis is also gonna get jobbed here.

This may have been mentioned earlier but Lewis has 7 less yards rushing than Taylor yet has, essentially, played two LESS games. J-Lew sat out Miami & had one carry before getting injured in New England. With the way New England's defense has been defending the run, heck, right now, a debate shouldn't be whether J-Lew deserves the Pro Bowl over Taylor, it should be, had he stayed healthy, would Lewis be in the mix for the AFC rushing title?

I DO think they should let Fred Taylor go, moreso for sentimentality reasons.

Dawson gets his kicks, but not enough
Saturday, December 22, 2007
By Steve Doerschuk
Repository sports writer


BEREA- Didn’t they see how he kicked in the snow against Buffalo?

Wouldn’t this have been the time to throw Phil Dawson some Honolulu love?

Did they forget the Baltimore bank shot? Wasn’t that alone worth one lousy piece of pineapple?

Have they no sense of history, of career achievement?

Does it mean nothing that Dawson ranks fourth all-time in career field goal percentage?

Don’t current events count? Analyze the misses in Dawson’s 24-of-27 season:

• His dead-on 51-yarder at Pittsburgh got stood up by a wind meaner than Joe Greene.

• He made a game-winning 40-yard field goal at Oakland, only to have it nixed by one of those sneaky timeouts. Then, someone forgot to block on the re-kick, which was blocked.

• His only true miss came at Baltimore, where you never have to say you’re sorry when you come back to win the game with a 51-yarder that becomes the talk of the year.

Ten years out of the University of Texas, and no Pro Bowls? Shouldn’t this have been the year?

Dawson is disappointed.

“You’re always hopeful,” Dawson said. “You play long enough, you know not every year is Pro Bowl-caliber. Three seasons in particular, I thought I might have a chance. This was one.”

Dawson, making 88.9 percent of his field goals this year, finished behind Tennessee’s Rob Bironas, who is at 88.6 percent (31-of-35).

“Rob is deserving,” Dawson said. “I congratulate him.”

In some ways, he is him.

Dawson was cut by the Raiders and Patriots before hanging on for dear life in Cleveland in 1999.

Bironas was undrafted in 2003, then found himself with the Charleston Swamp Foxes, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Carolina Cobras, Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Dragons before attempting his first NFL kick with the 2005 Titans.

Dawson is establishment now, a key man on an emerging team.

“I feel good about where I am in my career,” he said, “(A Pro Bowl) would kind of be icing on the cake.

“It’s been a goal of mine since Day 1. I never wanted to be a guy who was just good enough to hang on.

“I’m not giving up hope that it won’t one day happen. I think it would just be very rewarding to have it happen one time in my career.”

But when? He turns 33 next month, and the AFC is loaded with good place-kickers.

“It’s a dogfight every year to see who can make it,” Dawson said. “Look at that career accuracy list. Three of the top four are in our division.

“It’s pretty amazing when you think about it, considering the conditions we face in the AFC North. Two of the fields are Field Turf, which helps a little bit, but still, good grief.”

He’s not the vindictive type, but imagine this as a swell consolation prize:

Dawson kicks a game-winner in Shayne Graham’s stadium Sunday, and his team clinches a postseason spot. Tennessee is eliminated. After next weekend, Bironas doesn’t tee it up again until the Pro Bowl. Dawson flies to ... San Diego, maybe?

BODDEN OPTIMISTIC

Cornerback Leigh Bodden, a key to containing Cincinnati’s explosive passing offense, talked Friday as if he will play Sunday. Bodden missed a practice this week with a back problem but was back on the field Friday.

Of greater concern is a nagging knee problem bothering nose tackle Ethan Kelley. He was limited in practice Friday and was listed as questionable. Kelley didn’t play the last time the Browns lost, at Arizona.

Reach Repository sports writer Steve Doerschuk at (330) 580-8347 or e-mail: steve.doerschuk@cantonrep.com

Dawson sucks. he missed three field goals this year.

Nothing is official yet, but the starting right tackle has a groin injury that is going to keep him out of the last game and possibly the ProBowl. I know Thomas gets in by default, but alot of players do. He deserves to be there anyway. Nobody will remember how he got there, but that he got there. It will always be Cleveland Brown's ProBowl tackle Joe Thomas. Never though I'd here that!

http://cbs.sportsline.com/nfl/story/10544260

Bills' Peters out for Week 17 in Philly; Pro Bowl in doubt
Dec. 24, 2007
CBSSports.com wire reports

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- Buffalo Bills left tackle Jason Peters will miss Buffalo's season finale at Philadelphia on Sunday because of a groin injury that could also keep him from playing in the Pro Bowl in February.

Coach Dick Jauron said Monday that Peters will have tests this week to determine the severity of the injury suffered in the second quarter of a 38-21 loss to the New York Giants on Sunday.

"Hopefully, it'll be OK in time and hopefully he'll be able to participate in the Pro Bowl as a healthy tackle," Jauron said. "I'm sure that Jason's excited about playing in the Pro Bowl and will want to play in it. But I'm sure also he'll do the right thing as we move along."

Jauron said Peters had been bothered by a sore groin for several weeks before aggravating it when his right leg slid out from under him while blocking Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora. Peters lay on the field for several minutes before limping off on his own.

He watched from the sideline before being escorted to the Bills locker room with two minutes left in the second quarter. Without Peters, Buffalo allowed three sacks, ending a franchise record-tying string of three games without a sack.

Peters has not missed a start in 40 games since taking over at right tackle midway through the 2005 season.

Congrats to Joe! He really does deserve a trip to the Pro Bowl, as does Steinbach.

Joe deserves OROY to!!!

Let's see,, Ogden probably won't play in the Pro Bowl,,, so wouldn't that get Joe in?

Anyone watch the Bills here a lot?

I heard Madden and other gush about Peters all year, and in the limited times I've watched him, I haven't been impressed...not to say that played poorly by any stretch...but the praise he recieved just seemed undue...maybe I watched at the wrong times, maybe the rest of his line was holding him down...but I never really saw more than a lot of raw potential.

Quote:

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Peters will have tests this week to determine the severity of the injury

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Peters.... groin...Putting the 2 together....well makes me laugh....sick humor...


But it`s nice to see a rookie having this opportunity......GO JOE