Every NFL players strives to be the best in the league at their position and cement themselves as one of the sporting elite.  Those who manage to reach this lofty status in a single season are recognised by the associated press and selected for the one of the two All-Pro teams.  These fictional rosters identify the top 2 (or occasionally 3) players at each position on the field in the eyes of the media, but in my opinion, they don't always get it right.  That's why I have decided to create my own teams, both first and second, and show my appreciation for the outstanding players of the 2018 NFL season.

OFFENCE

Quarterback
First Team: Pat Mahomes (Kansas City Chiefs)
Second Team: Drew Brees (New Orleans Saints)

Running Back
First Team: Saquon Barkley (New York Giants)
Second Team: Todd Gurley (Los Angeles Rams)

Wide Receiver
First Team: DeAndre Hopkins (Houston Texans), Julio Jones (Atlanta Falcons)
Second Team: Tyreek Hill (Kansas City Chiefs), Adam Thielen (Minnesota Vikings)

Flex
First Team: Michael Thomas (New Orleans Saints)
Second Team: Christian McCaffrey (Carolina Panthers)

Tight End
First Team: George Kittle (San Francisco 49ers)
Second Team: Travis Kelce (Kansas City Chiefs)

Left Tackle
First Team: Terron Armstead (New Orleans Saints)
Second Team: David Bakhtiari (Green Bay Packers)

Left Guard
First Team: Joel Bitonio (Cleveland Browns)
Second Team: David DeCastro (Pittsburgh Steelers)

Center
First Team: Jason Kelce (Philadelphia Eagles)
Second Team: Matt Paradis (Denver Broncos)

Right Guard
First Team: Zach Martin (Dallas Cowboys)
Second Team: Marshal Yanda (Baltimore Ravens)

Right Tackle
First Team: Mitchell Schwartz (Kansas City Chiefs)
Second Team: Ryan Ramczyk (New Orleans Saints)

DEFENCE

Edge
First Team: Khalil Mack (Chicago Bears), J.J. Watt (Houston Texans)
Second Team: Von Miller (Denver Broncos), Cameron Jordan (New Orleans Saints)

Interior D-Line
First Team: Aaron Donald (Los Angeles Rams), Fletcher Cox (Philadelphia Eagles)
Second Team: Chris Jones (Kansas City Chiefs), Damon Harrison (Detroit Lions)

Linebacker
First Team: Bobby Wagner (Seattle Seahawks), Luke Kuechly (Carolina Panthers), Darius Leonard (Indianapolis Colts)
Second Team: Leighton Vander Esch (Dallas Cowboys), Zach Brown (Washington Redskins), Jaylon Smith (Dallas Cowboys)

Cornerback
First Team: Stephon Gilmore (New England Patriots), Byron Jones (Dallas Cowboys)
Second Team: Chris Harris Jr. (Denver Broncos), Kyle Fuller (Chicago Bears)

Safety
First Team: Derwin James (Los Angeles Chargers), Eddie Jackson (Chicago Bears)
Second Team: Jamal Adams (New York Jets), Kevin Byard (Tennessee Titans)

Defensive Back
First Team: Desmond King (Los Angeles Chargers)
Second Team: Kareem Jackson (Houston Texans)

SPECIAL TEAMS

Kicker
First Team: Aldrick Rosas (New York Giants)
Second Team: Justin Tucker (Baltimore Ravens)

Punter
First Team: Michael Dickson (Seattle Seahawks)
Second Team: Johnny Hekker (Los Angeles Rams)

Kick Returner
First Team: Jakeem Grant (Miami Dolphins)
Second Team: Cordarelle Patterson (New England Patriots)

Punt Returner
First Team: Andre Roberts (New York Jets)
Second Team: Tarik Cohen (Chicago Bears)

Special Teams
First Team: Cory Littleton (Los Angeles Rams)
Second Team: Albert McClellan (New England Patriots)

By Fergus Head

WOOOOOOW!  Look how big he is.  A common enough exclamation while watching the football unfold every weekend.  OOOOOH!  Look how fast he is. Perhaps even more common.  Players in the NFL today are bigger than ever.  In the 1920s, the average NFL offensive lineman was 6’0” and 211 lbs, which is remarkably small, but that was a different time, so let’s skip forward.  In the 1960s, with the birth of the Superbowl era, the big men were the same size as the average linebacker today; 6’3”, 251 lbs.  That’s still a pretty big man let’s not get silly.  Winding forward again, the 90's see the rise of raves, hard drugs, and an average sized lineman of 300 lbs.  In today’s NFL, the average is an inch taller, and 12 pounds heavier. To get ahead of the game, players are getting bigger and bigger.

This is what the progression of the size of all players looks like on a visual level, a study well-constructed by Noah Veltman:

​That top right distribution of player simply didn’t exist until recent times.      
           
At last year’s combine we saw the 40-yard dash time broken by John Ross with a mind-boggling 4.22.  Only in 2015 we saw a world record broken by Byron Jones for his 12’3” standing broad jump.  Of course, combine stats don’t give the whole story, but the point stands, players are getting bigger, faster and better. Even without the numbers, it’s a fairly reasonable assertion that the things we are lucky enough to witness every Sunday are becoming more and more athletically astounding.
 
So what’s the point of all this?  Well, while the game has changed and developed, the rules, the way its played, and of course as discussed, the players have morphed, one thing has remained constant.  The field.  It is simply and utterly absurd that the field has remained 100 yards throughout all of these cataclysmic changes in size.  2018 has been an explosion of offense, and don’t get me wrong that’s lots of fun, but seeing Tyreek Hill cover the length of the field and Patrick Mahomes flick it to him as though they were on a tennis court, not a football field, got me thinking . Annoyingly, Brock Osweiler got me thinking too.  He’s 6’7”.  All he has to do is lie down with the ball in his hands a few times and he’s made it to the goal line.
 
But enough of the silly stuff.  I am well aware that this will not be a popular opinion.  But it at least needs to be considered. I’d suggest adding 20 yards in length, and 10 in width.  The end zones remain the same as they are, 10 yards, because once the plain is crossed their length is irrelevant, and the difficulty of the Redzone is not having lots of space to play with, and this is a suggestion designed to make football more competitive.  I appreciate that the stat book would likely have to be thrown out, and that pains me more than you can imagine; stats got me into the sport, and the history a close second, so of course that would be a monumental loss.  But I don’t watch arena football, it doesn’t look right, and with the size and speed and raw ability to do better stuff than before, players are dwarfing the field.  Changes to the rules have (rightly in the interest of safety) forced, to some degree, defensive players to slow down, they can’t fly in and pummel anything that moves with their brain being used as a handy airbag anymore.  So there needs to be something to redress the balance, and I think this is it.
 
All a complete waste of time of course, no way Goodell is making the field bigger, not with the ratings through the roof as offensive football paves the way for an insatiable market, clamouring for more.  I just don’t want the day to come where it looks like I’m watching a Madden game with sliders way out of tilt, and a longer field might just help.

​Looking for a more analytical take on game predictions?  Visit www.gamedaypicks.co.uk.

​Looking for a more analytical take on game predictions?  Visit www.gamedaypicks.co.uk.