Friday Rants are back baby! We’ve got a juicy one today.
First-Team All-Pro selections were announced, and DeAndre Hopkins was somehow selected over Julio Jones. They were pretty close in most categories, but Julio had some distinct advantages.
Catches:
Hopkins – 104
Jones – 99
Yards:
Hopkins – 1165 (11th)
Jones – 1394 (2nd)
Yards Per Game:
Hopkins – 77.7
Jones – 92.9Â
Yards Per Reception:
Hopkins – 11.2
Jones – 14.1
Touchdowns:
Hopkins – 7
Jones – 6
So Hopkins has the edge in two major categories… 5 more catches and one more touchdown. As usual, the Julio Jones’ bias is clear. He’s been doing his thing so well for so long that voters have just glossed over everything he’s done.
It reminds me a lot of Lebron James earlier in his career. There was absolutely no disputing who the best player in the world was. He often led his team to the best record in the conference and unequivocally posted the best stats year in and year out, yet he has only collected four MVPs and was snubbed multiple times because voters were merely tired of acknowledging him. They wanted someone else, who would have been deserving if Lebron James never existed, to win the award.
That’s what they are doing to Julio Jones. Hopkins didn’t have near the type of year that Jones did, but this snub actually isn’t as bad as the one from last season, when Jones racked up nearly 300 more yards, and almost 20 more yards per game more than Michael Thomas yet was named Second-team All-Pro. Thomas had one more measly touchdown and a bunch more receptions, but what is this… fantasy football? Who cares how many receptions a guy has? It’s infinitely more impressive that Jones caught for 300 more yards and caught 12 fewer balls.
All this All-Pro and Pro-Bowl voting has turned into such a joke; I just hope these types of things aren’t taken into consideration when Hall-of-Fame voting comes around. Jones will have no issues, but others may not be so lucky.