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Good article.I would more or less have the same team and Mike Williams as rookie of the year.The guy has a big future ahead of him.

So none of the Patriots make the squad even though, bar one match where they let the trash talk get to them, they were by far the best team in the league?

Not knocking your squad, it is a worthy one, and I appreciate the Pats are a good example of the sum being greater than it's parts, but surely there Is more to them than Tom Brady!

I pretty much agree with your picks, although I think Hillis deserved a mention in the running back category even though Foster deserved to win.

Also think Jennings should have been mentioned at wide receiver - after a slow start he exploded towards the end of the season and has carried that form into the play-offs.

Raheem Morris did a fantastic job this season with such a young team but I think Mike McCarthy deserves to be coach of the year for taking the Packers to the Super Bowl with 15 players on injured reserve and 91 games by starting players.

Rookie of the year has to be Suh - that guy is a monster!

No honourable mention to Shady McCoy who led the NFC in total yards from scrimmage? The guy is in his 2nd year and will be Philly's franchise running back - I was devastated when Westbrook left but it looks like Shady will be even better.

Thought Giants Justin Tuck should have a mention

Ermmm Neil, you might want to consider the fact that offense and defense have 11 players on the field at one time.
If you want to do a team of the year, do an all star team, it seems incredibly unfair to attempt to lump tackles, guards, centres, defensive ends and defensive tackles in to defensive line and offensive line. You know as well as I that all those positions require different skill sets.

Nice call on Raheem for head coach of the year Neil. Must have been the shock of you playing catch with Jerry Rice that made you go all gaga over the Bucs.

I agree with most but Roddy White should be the wide receiver and I assume you've picked Aaron Rodgers to stimulate debate.

Dealing with Roddy White first the question is what does he have to do? The guy had 115 catches on a run first team and 10 TDs. Reggie Wayne only had 6 TDs this season, basically one every three games.

Roddy White is infinitely more important to Matt Ryan than Wayne is to Manning and I find it hard for anyone to see it otherwise. The only argument I can think of is that Atlanta has a better go-to-guy in Tony Gonzalez but in the final days of his career he is no better a receiver than Pierre Garcon. Manning threw the ball 100 times more and 100 yards more than Matt Ryan yet the two receivers have comparable numbers. The deciding point for me is touchdown, Manning threw 33 and Wayne caught 6 where as Ryan threw 28 and White caught 10.

As for Rodgers, yes he's had a couple of good play-off games but does that make him league MVP, hell no. You say Brady's one and done but they played a good secondary, of Green Bay's opponents only Chicago can boast that and he didn't play that well in those games. In Green Bay's last five games his three stellar performances have been against the Giants, Eagles and Falcons. The Eagles have a questionable secondary and the less said about the other secondaries the better.

Just as a point of reference Rodgers played the Jets earlier this season and completed 44% of his passes and had a passer rating of 59.7. Playing well in January against average defences doesn't make up for one of the all-time great seasons by a QB. Brady lead the league in TD passes with 36 and threw 4 interceptions, that's unbelieveable.

Just a couple of other tid-bits; Rodgers didn't make the Pro Bowl squad and the All-Pro second team offense doesn't have a QB because Brady got every single vote!! Granted these are cast before the post-season but the MVP is for the entire season not just the post-season. If Big Ben throws for 400 yards and 5 TDs in the Superbowl carrying the Steelers to victory doesn't make him the league MVP.

The MVP award is for the most valuable player, Green Bay are a great team with or without Rodgers as witnessed by their performance in New England, the same can't be said for the Patriots without Brady.

I think thats a pretty good shout for a standard team of the year - although agree the offensive line needs a bit more detail, but as you say only x amount of space.

QB - Rogers has been good because their TE was injured all season, grant was injured during the first and green bay only just discovered a run game in the play offs. He also got knocked out twice and has to play chicago vikes (allen and williams) and lions (suh and van de boosch) twice every season so does play against some awsome sack machines. However Brady has to get it purely on his stats or Vick due to his amazing come back. But Rogers isnt far off.

WR - This can't be right? Roddy White has to be all the way esp as Falcons run the ball alot more.

Anyway been a great season, just hope the steelers dont win

Aaron Rodgers over Brady? Oh come on that's surely only put in there to get some comments going isn't it? Well I guess it's worked.

Seriously, if you pick Rodgers over Brady I question whether you've actually even watched much of the NFL this year. Brady is as close to a one man team as there is in the NFL. He's not been perfect this year but he's been streets ahead of anyone else, Rodgers included. Yes Brady did ok against the Jets and they lost. As you said yourself, he was playing hurt. The biggest difference between Rodgers and Brady? The supporting cast. Brady has Wes Welker and a bunch of rookies or bits and pieces receivers. Rodgers has probably the best collection of 4 WRs in the league and a really good defense on the other side of the ball.

Case in point, here's the stat lines from the Rodgers and Brady's last games:

Rodgers: 17 or 30 passing for 244 yards 0TDs 2 interceptions
Brady: 29 of 45 passing for 299 yards 2TDs 1 interception

Patriots lose, Packers win. Pats didn't lose because fo Brady and the Packers didn't win because of Rodgers. And there's the difference and why Brady is light years ahead of Rodgers.

Oh and I'm a Steelers fan and I hate the Patriots, but there is simply no denying Brady was the best QB in football this year.

Was going to post a longer comment with reasons, but I don't think I need to. Picking anyone over Brady at QB is just ridiculous this season. One bad game in postseason does not a poor quarterback make; ask Peyton Manning.

Just a shout out for Peyton Hillis who was a bright light in another mediocre Browns season.

QB: Sanchez
Receiver: Holmes
Center: Mangold

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

my only consideration would be Detroit on O-Line....they were looking after back ups and still allowing time for wins.

and def with the Hillis fans!

Good picks Neil. I'd probably gone with Rodgers as he's in the SB, with honourable mentions to the every impressive Brady and the hypnotic left arm of Vick.
Standout for me though has been the Pats rookie RB 'law firm' Benjarvus Green Ellis. The guy looks a great propsect and has looked an absolute beast when I've watched the NFL this year.

I'd have given Dez Bryant at Dallas a mention for rookie of the year, he's been outstanding this year, injury aside. I agree about Suh though, a complete man mountain.

Somebody that has impressed me is Aaron Hernandez, TE at the Patriots. I would expect him to make a big impact next year. Good article.

this article is embarrassing. You have not picked a "team" ... you have just picked players at certain positions. Apart from P, K and KR, you have omitted FS, SS, G, C, DT etc. Change the title of the blog or pick a team. This is amateur at best.

Oh stop whining Marcus, it's a blog about team of the year discussing several positions, not an in-depth analysis of every position on the field.

Even though I'm a Pack fan, I do think Brady is MVP. I don't think there's any doubt about that.

offensive line 1 guy?? has he ever seen a NFL game?? WR 1 guy?? wow this is so poor. Can't believe ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ will pay this joker to write this trash. Does he realize there are 22 players on field at any time and he should have picked at least 22.

For those talking up the Kick Returners I would like to make a case for Brad Smith, I thought he did an amazing job for Jets. Smith is one of the reasons the Jets was one of the most efficent returning teams in the league.

Revis is a good shout, anyone who can positively shut out a side gains my respect. He leaves the best QB's in the game scared and takes the best WR's off the field. All time best for my money.

@packersftw - Im not whining. Im asking for some accurate journalism I apologise for my old-fashioned ways.

I would also have been interested to have seen his overall TEAM picks. Just picking one OL, one DL etc is not very interesting imo.

Are you seriously going to place Polamalu above Ed Reed?! The guy missed six games and still managed to lead the league in interceptions. Polamalu has, if anything, has appeared on several occasions to be slightly hampered with injury. You are right to say that at the top of his game he is one of the league's most dominant players, however this year has not seen his best, and he has been caught out a few times. Even so, he is nonetheless an elite safety and a fearsome player.
Now, although Brady was one-and-done this season, this could hardly be deemed his fault. The Patriots executed poorly throughout that match as a team. The Crumpler drop in the endzone lost 4 points, the attempted fake punt lost a further 7 and a string of poor penalties led to hard to manage situations. The strategy of intermediate passing employed by the Patriots demands execution and they were poor. They still only lost by a score. Brady's performances throughout the season with a group of, for the most part, unknowns, were nothing short of exceptional. Whilst Rodgers has been very good, his receiving core is among the strongest in the NFL and has benefited from playing with a great defense who have regularly shut teams down. Their respective seasons aren't in the same league as each other. Brady is the clear victor as QB of the year...unfortunately for him the other will probably win the Superbowl.

marcus and sportszombie - it amazes me how rude some people can be. Do you not realise how long this blog would be if it was a list of 22 players? Do you also not realise that most British people would have no interest in reading about who the best nose tackle in the league is? THINK BEFORE YOU WRITE.

Neil, after reading all the comments do you wish you had picked Brady?!

It has to be Brady doesn't it?

Brady; vs Bears in poor weather; awesome

Rodgers; vs Bears a couple of times, pretty average and v fortunate to beat us in final regular season game.

Also agree on the White v Wayne comments.

Anyways, looking forward to pre Super Bowl blog ;-)

Revis is probably the best corner in the NFL (though Asomugha may have something to say about that) bit in terms of absolute performance this season from a CB, I'd say the best was McCourtey, who had an outstanding season - especially for a rookie. He will probably have far fewer stats next season as he is well on his way to being a shut-down corner like Revis and Asomugha.

Nnamdi Asomugha!

packersftw - A bit patronizing to the British fans i think. I'm an English nfl fan and prefer it when nfl blogs directed at a UK audience go into the detail of those unglamorous positions. Anyway i understand why Neil has not done that here.

For RB i would have gone for Jamaal Charles - a higher average yards per carry than Foster.

Forte's had a pretty good season ranked 4th in rushing yards and making some great play actions to open up the pocket