Tag: All Decade

Fox Sports Wisconsin releases their Wisconsin Badger 2010s all-decade defensive team

Fox Sports Wisconsin released their Wisconsin Badger 2010’s all-decade defensive team yesterday and I’m here to run through their…

Fox Sports Wisconsin released their Wisconsin Badger 2010’s all-decade defensive team yesterday and I’m here to run through their selections.

Defensive end: J.J. Watt, Alec James

Though Watt only played one season during the 2010-2019 decade he is an easy selection for this list. Here’s their thought process of including Alec James on the list:

With linebackers schemed to make the majority of plays in a 3-4 defense, James still managed to put up decent numbers. From 2016-17, he had 85 tackles, 11.5 tackles for loss, 10 sacks and even five passes broken up. Not too shabby for a position not destined for a lot of production.

 

Defensive tackle: Beau Allen

Wisconsin Badger and Philadelphia Eagle legend Beau Allen was the quintessential Badger nose tackle and went on to win a Super Bowl with the Eagles in 2017. Nothing bad to say about this selection.

Their paragraph on Allen:

Playing in Wisconsin’s 4-3 defense in 2011-12, Allen combined to post 13 tackles for loss, 6.5 sacks and three forced fumbles. When the Badgers moved to a 3-4 in 2013, Allen fit right in. Even though nose guards don’t put up the numbers in a 3-4, Allen still had 20 tackles, two TFL and 1.5 sacks in his final year.

 

Outside linebacker: Vince Biegel, Joe Schobert

Here is my first minor problem with this list. For me at least, T.J. Watt is an easy selection and should be on the team with Schobert.

Here’s their explanation:

Biegel was a three-year starter who finished with 191 tackles, 39.5 tackles for loss and 21 sacks. In 2014, he had 16.5 TFL and 7.5 sacks and the next season 14 TFL and eight sacks. Bigel was named to the All-Big Ten teams each of his three seasons as a starter. Schobert was, simply put, a playmaker at linebacker. In 2014 he recorded 13.5 TFL, three sacks, seven passes broken up and two forced fumbles. He followed that up in 2015 with 19.5 TFL, 9.5 sacks, an interception, three PBU and five forced fumbles en route to being named the Big Ten linebacker of the year and to numerous All-America teams.

 

Inside linebacker: Chris Borland, T.J. Edwards

Easy selections.

Borland played in both Wisconsin’s 4-3 and 3-4 defenses – and thrived in each. From 2011-13 he produced 359 tackles, 37.5 tackles for loss, 11 sacks, two interceptions, 15 passes broken up and 10 forced fumbles. He had at least 104 tackles in each of those years. In 2013, Borland became the first Badgers linebacker to be named a first-team All-American since 1951. A four-year starter, Edwards did everything. He stopped the run, could play in coverage and even get after the quarterback. He finished with 367 tackles, 37.5 TFL, eight sacks, 10 interceptions, 25 passes broken up and two forced fumbles.

 

Safety: Michael Caputo, D’Cota Dixon

No disagreements here, though seeing these names being the best the team had last decade gets the blood pumping when thinking about how good the duo of Hunter Wohler and Braelon Allen will be in the coming years, but that’s aside from the point.

Here’s what they had to say about the two safeties:

Caputo:

Just a tenacious player, Caputo played strong safety his senior year but started at free safety as a sophomore and junior, so that’s where we’re placing him. From 2013-15, Caputo had 234 tackles, including 10 for loss, with three interceptions, 20 passes broken up and four forced fumbles. His 2014 season was one for the ages for a Badgers safety – 106 tackles, six TFL, 7 PBU and four fumble recoveries.

Dixon:

Here at FOX Sports Wisconsin we love a safety who can hit and cover. Caputo fit that bill. So did Dixon. From 2016-18, Dixon recorded 158 tackles, 8.5 tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks, five interceptions, 15 passes broken up and three forced fumbles. Injuries did limit him, but that kind of production – not to mention some leveling tackles – gives him the nod.

Five Badgers included in Big Ten Network’s All-Decade second team

After releasing their All-Decade first team earlier this week, Big Ten Network released their second team yesterday and five Badgers made…

After releasing their All-Decade first team earlier this week, Big Ten Network released their second team yesterday and five Badgers made the cut.

Those players are running back Melvin Gordon, wide receiver Jared Abbrederis, offensive linemen Gabe Carimi and Kevin Zeitler and outside linebacker T.J. Watt.

This after Jonathan Taylor, Michael Deiter, J.J. Watt and Chris Borland were all on BTN’s All-Decade first team.

2010-2019 was a memorable decade for Badger football, and holding nine combined spots on the two All-Decade teams–good for second in the conference behind Ohio State’s 17–is an accurate representation of that success.

Three Badgers included in PFF’s ‘All-Decade Top 101’

Sam Monson and the ProFootballFocus team compiled a list of the 101 best NFL players from the 2010s this week and included three former…

Sam Monson and the ProFootballFocus team compiled a list of the 101 best NFL players from the 2010s this week and included three former Badgers: J.J. Watt, Joe Thomas and Travis Frederick.

The website lists the top 101 players in the NFL after each season, but now that the decade has turned they took a shot at the best players to play in the league from 2010-2019.

The highest ranked was No. 9 overall J.J. Watt.

“Before Aaron Donald came on the scene, J.J. Watt was the most destructive defensive force PFF had ever graded in the NFL,” the article reads. “Watt had a four-season run with PFF grades of at least 91.4, averaging 93 total pressures per year in that time, a figure which led the league in 2019. J.J. Watt’s best play is as good as anything the league has seen.”

The Wisconsin native is the only active player of the three Badgers listed above and is under contract through the 2021 season. Though he has dealt with injuries since he entered the league, sings point towards a few more peak years for Watt as he continues to have one of the best NFL careers a Badger has ever had.

The next player on the list is Joe Thomas at No. 11 overall.

“Joe Thomas is unquestionably one of the best players in NFL history; he was the gold standard for pass protection from the moment he entered the NFL,” the article reads. “Thomas had three straight seasons in the decade with a PFF grade above 90.0 and will be Canton-bound before long.”

I detailed Thomas’ career last week and shared the remarkable NFL-best streak he had of 10,363 consecutive snaps played. If that isn’t enough, during his 11-year NFL career the Wisconsin native made 10 Pro Bowl appearances and was nominated to six All-Pro teams while blocking for a plethora of sub-par quarterbacks who did not make his job an easy one.

Travis Frederick, the last Badger on the list of 101 players, landed at No. 34 overall.

“It’s a shame that illness curtailed a career that was trending towards being one of the greatest in NFL history,” the article reads. “Frederick hit the ground running as a pro and graded above 85.0 for the first five seasons of his career before Guillain-Barre syndrome forced him to miss the entirety of the 2018 season…Even five years of Frederick’s best play is enough to see him rank among the best players of the past decade.”

Frederick just recently retired after the 2019 season and, as written by Monson, was dominant enough that only five peak years were enough to land him at No. 34 on the list. The Wisconsin native finished his seven-year career with six seasons of 16 games played, five Pro Bowl appearances and one All-Pro nomination.

Where are they now: Joe Thomas

The post-draft football lull continues as we continue the “where are they now” series with a look at the college, professional and…

[lawrence-newsletter]

The post-draft football lull continues as we continue the “where are they now” series with a look at the college, professional and post-football career of legendary offensive tackle Joe Thomas.

Thomas was born in Brookfield, Wisconsin and committed to play for the Badgers after shining as a four-star recruit and the No. 18 offensive line prospect in his class coming out of high school.

He didn’t only play offensive line in high school, though, as he was also ranked by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as a first-team all-state defensive lineman and by the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association as the 2002 Defensive Player of the Year.

Thomas then arrived in Madison in 2003 and began his career as a tight end while he added weight and transitioned to the college level.

During the remainder of his college career, 2004-2006, Thomas started for the Badgers at left tackle during a total of 38 contests and finished his time in Madison having been named as a first-team All-American twice, to the first-team All-Big Ten twice and won the Outland Trophy awarded to the nation’s best interior lineman as a senior in 2006.

His college production and NFL Combine results were enough for the Cleveland Browns to draft Thomas No. 3 overall in the 2007 NFL Draft.

Despite the fact that it’s challenging for offensive linemen to enter the public eye as they never touch the football and aren’t drafted in fantasy leagues, especially so for one on a bad team for his whole career, Thomas became widely known as one of the greatest left tackles to ever play the game.

He did this through, over the course of 10.5 years, playing in an NFL record 10,363 consecutive snaps before a tricep tear in 2017 eventually ended his season and his career. That’s playing every snap from when he entered the league, playing his first game in September of 2007 against the Pittsburgh Steelers, to when he got injured on October 22, 2017 against the Tennessee Titans. Ten full seasons and seven weeks of never missing an offensive snap.

There’s a saying that the best ability is availability. Thomas was a perfect embodiment of that statement, impressively doing it at a position where players face contact on every play and often miss time with leg injuries and concussions.

As icing on an impressive cake, Thomas’ 11-year NFL career finished with six All-Pro nominations and ten Pro Bowl appearances, the only offensive lineman ever to do so. During that 11-year career he also allowed only 30 sacks in over 6,600 pass-blocking snaps and was recently named to NFL.com’s 2010’s All-Decade Team along with fellow Badger J.J. Watt.

Though he isn’t eligible for the Hall of Fame until 2023, he will be a sure-fire first ballot nominee as he puts a wrap on one of the greatest careers at his position in the history of the league.

In the two years since his retirement Thomas has lost 50 pounds and has transitioned to work in the NFL media both for Uninterrupted.com, for whom he hosts a podcast with his former teammate Andrew Hawkins, and for NFL Network for whom he’s an NFL analyst and regular contributor to their Thursday Night Football broadcasts.

The embodiment of Wisconsin football, Thomas will soon become only the third Wisconsin representative in the Pro Football Hall of Fame joining Elroy Hirsch and Mike Webster as he continues to work as a member of the NFL media and in close relation to everything football.

Adrian Peterson, Demarco Murray named top-10 running backs of the decade

Adrian Peterson and Demarco Murray come in at No. 1 and 5 respectively in the Yahoo Sports All-Decade running backs list.

When it comes to running backs, the Sooners have had their fare share of all-timers. According to Yahoo Sports, Adrian Peterson and Demarco Murray come in at No. 1 and No. 5 respectively on the top-10 running backs of the decade list.

Adrian Peterson had both a storied career at the college and professional level. From 2004-06, he amassed 4,239 yards for Oklahoma. He averaged 5.4 yards per carry, and scored 41 rushing touchdowns.

At the professional level, Peterson was the only running back to win MVP this decade. He ran for 2,097 yards for the Vikings in 2012, just 8 yards away from the record for most rushing yards in a season. Since his tenure with the Vikings, he has played for the Saints, Cardinals, and now the Redskins. He ranks fifth all-time in rushing yards with 14,216 yards. The only other active back in the top 20 is Frank Gore at No. 3.

Demarco Murray immediately followed Peterson at Oklahoma, and had two 1,000-yard seasons for the Sooners. He played for four years, and scored 50 rushing touchdowns. He ran for 7,174 yards in the decade in the NFL for the Cowboys and the Titans, good for sixth-most. Murray retired from football in 2017.