DGDB&D: a Texans blog.

LenDalesaurus would make the All-Gastronomical Team

Jun 30, 2007 Andre Johnson, Athletes who don't stab people, Charles Spencer, DeMeco Ryans, Dunta Robinson, Fred Weary is dirty, Peyton Manning's lovelife, Posts that list too many players, Teams that aren't the Texans

Random Thought: Who are the best players at each position in the AFC South? I’m not talking so much about career stats or even what they did last year, though the latter will play into it a little. Rather, if you could build a team right now, to start play in 2007 (without worrying about nastiness like the salary cap), what would an All-AFC South starting lineup look like?

Offense
QB–Peyton Manning. Mrs. Chesney is the only correct answer here. Damn it.
RB–Maurice Jones-Drew. Joseph Addai was a tempting choice, but Jones-Drew’s combination of game breaking speed and strength makes me lean this way. Besides, he averaged more yards per carry than Addai last season and had nearly twice as many TDs.
FB–Vonta Leach. Funny thing… not too many teams in this division use a true fullback. Sure, Dallas Clark lines up as an H-back sometimes, but that’s not the same. So I chose Leach over Ahmard Hall, thinking that there must have been a reason the Giants were trying to snag Leach away.
WR1–Andre Johnson. Blasphemer! Heretic! Possibly, but I think that this is the season where Andre Johnson establishes himself as the best WR in the conference. His numbers might not trump Harrison’s, but his play will.
WR2–Marvin Harrison. It’s not like I left Marvin off the list. We can even call him WR1B if that makes certain fans happy.
TE–Owen Daniels. I hadn’t stopped to think about how solid the TEs are throughout the AFC South. Besides Daniels and the aforementioned Clark, you’ve got Marcedes Lewis, Bo Scaife, Ben Troupe, etc. Daniels, however, showed signs of a breakout last year, so consider this almost as much prognostication as reasoned choice.
LT–Tarik Glenn. Put it this way–it is my fond hope that, someday, Charles Spencer is as good as Glenn.
LG–Vince Manuwai. Umm… you ever tried to pick the best left guard out of a group?
C–Jeff Saturday. Even Colts fans acknowledge that Saturday is a big reason for the Colts’ success. He’s still one of the best in all of football.
RG–Chris Naeole. God, I hate picking guards. That said, Naeole is every bit as good as Fred Weary and 1/10th as likely to get tazered. That counts in this. Somehow.
RT–Eric Winston. Winston would be being groomed to start (or actually starting) at left tackle for a number of teams in the NFL. I honestly think he’ll be one of the best RTs in the league this season.

Defense
LDE–Kyle Vanden Bosch. The funny thing about the defensive line in this exercise is that all of the choices were pretty clear cut. With the next three guys on the list, it is because they are among the very best at their respective positions in the entire league. With KVB, however, it’s because the rest of the choices in the conference were uninspiring. Congrats, Kyle.
LDT–Marcus Stroud. Stroud and Henderson were taken in the first round by the Jags in consecutive drafts. Since then, they’ve dominated nearly everyone they’ve played and show no signs of slowing down.
RDT–John Henderson. Asked and answered, your honor.
RDE–Dwight Freeney. I like Mario Williams as much or more than pretty much anyone. That said, I would trade him for Freeney in a heartbeat. And there aren’t too many fans of other teams who wouldn’t swap their RDE for him.
LLB–David Thornton. Looking at the Titans’ depth chart, you see two tackling machines on either side of a complete turd. Odd. Thornton showed great all-around strongside play last year and, with some of the glaring holes the Titans have on D this year, he’ll be asked to play that well again.
MLB–DeMeco Ryans. D-e-M-e-c-o. 125 solo tackles, 3.5 sacks, 1 INT, and 5 passes defended. As a rookie. (Here’s where I wish I could have the Kool-Aid Man bust through your screen and scream “Oh, YEAH!”)
RLB–Keith Bulluck. Five straight seasons over 100 tackles, and he’s still one of the most underrated players in the league. Hard to do.
CB1–Rashean Mathis. Class of the AFC South CBs, Mathis is a ball hawk and–like Bulluck–not near as heralded out of conference as he should be.
CB2–Dunta Robinson. I did the same thing with CB that I did with WR–I put the second-best #1 in the #2 spot. Now, I know that Friend-of-DGDB&D KC Joyner said that Dunta wasn’t quite as good as advertised, but he also said that last year’s metrics suggested he was improving. So, I’m going on the assumption that he will be better this year than any CB in the South other than Mathis.
SS–Chris Hope. Great in coverage, great nose for the ball, fantastic tackler, integral part of a Super Bowl defense.
FS–Bob Sanders. Remember that scene in Friday, where Deebo hit Red? Yeah, that’s what it’s like when Sanders unloads on an unsuspecting WR. Of course, he’s not the most durable dude in the league, but–for this team–he’s just the type of physical presence you want.