According to Pro Football Talk, the Associated Press is considering modernizing its annual All-Pro team, which has become quite antiquated due to the fact it possesses three running backs and just two wide receivers in an age of heavy passing and limited running.
Hallelujah.
One of those running backs is a fullback, a dying position which some teams don’t even use anymore. It’s ridiculous that a fullback receives first-team All-Pro honors every year, while only two receivers and two cornerbacks are honored. The league’s best slot corners and slot receivers play more than half of their teams’ downs, which is something very few fullbacks can say, so it’s time to transfer that selection from the offensive backfield to the slot.
These days, offenses use three-receiver sets about 60 percent of the time, and defenses are in the nickel or dime just as often. A total of 33 corners and 27 receivers took at least 200 snaps in the slot last season, while only 13 fullbacks were on the field that often.
With all due respect to 2015 first-team All-Pro fullback Mike Tolbert, I’d rather see a top-end slot receiver like Doug Baldwin or Larry Fitzgerald or a top-end nickel corner like Malcolm Jenkins or Kareem Jackson make that team than a fullback who played fewer than half of his team’s snaps.
Do the right thing, AP.
