Maybe this is a story that’ll pick you up after this weekend’s terrible, no good, very bad day loss.
Pro Football Focus has named Troy Polamalu and James Harrison to their All-Decade team, spanning from 2006 to last season.
On Harrison, the site said:
“James Harrison is a different type of player who, at his peak, was dropping into coverage on about 40 percent of opposing QB dropbacks. He’s the epitome of the old style, stand-up edge player who covered, played the run, rushed the passer, and did them all well.”
I actually had no idea Harrison’s coverage percentage was ever that high and it would make more sense why his percentages are still in the 30% range today.
From that time span, ’06 to ’15, Harrison racked up 72.5 sacks, 31 forced fumbles, and six interceptions in 103 starts. A safety is in there for good measure.
As PFF writes, Harrison even graded out positively league-wide last season at age 37. Harrison was named alongside and Von Millers.
On Polamalu, they wrote.
“Troy Polamalu was a little inconsistent throughout his career, but when he was at his best, such as in 2008 (No. 2 ranked safety) and 2011 (No. 1 ranked safety, with a 91.4 grade), he was magnificent. While Polamalu had the ability to play deep, he was best known for his work in the box, where at times he seemed to know the snap count on his blitzes better than the offense.”
Same stats criteria for Troy. Over 550 tackles, 25 interceptions, 11 forced fumbles, and six sacks in 110 starts. That, of course, doesn’t even include the first two years he started where he had another seven picks. He’s a surefire first ballot Hall of Famer. Ed Reed was named with Polamalu.
Antonio Brown made the honorable mentions at wide receiver probably simply not having enough body of work in the first half of their ballot. He lost out to Calvin Johnson and Larry Fitzgerald and named honorable mention with Andre Johnson.
Aaron Rodgers was named their top quarterback, Joe Thomas their left tackle, Patrick Willis their inside linebacker, and Antoine Winfield their top slot corner. Again, you can see the rest of the list here.
