Miami Woes Are Jones’ Woes

Last year, Reshad Jones publicly declared himself the best safety in football. When a player opens his mouth, and declares himself the best, it usually backfires. However, Jones has backed up his comments with impressive play the last two seasons. This past season was by far his best season, and some sports gambling fans are claiming that this was one of the best seasons for a safety in NFL history. YET, not everyone came to the same conclusion. Jones missed being elected to the Pro Bowl due to the Pro Bowl process of election being a joke of a popularity contest and also in part, because of the Dolphins failings as a franchise over the last twenty years and it’s decline in popularity.

The 3 free safeties selected instead of Jones were Earl Thomas (Seahawks), Reggie Nelson (Bengals) and Tyrann Mathieu (Cardinals). Each of these players are excellent players, and they have each went to the Pro Bowl before. However, not one of these players had a better statistical season than Jones. BUT, all of them came from teams with successful seasons.

Earl Thomas is one of the leaders of the Legion of Boom, and Seattle has had one of the best defenses in the league for years. Thomas had 64 tackles, 1 forced fumble, 5 interceptions and 9 passes defended. He had a good year, but he is definitely a fan favorite, which helped him solidify his place in the Pro Bowl.

Reggie Nelson is the leader of the Cincinnati Bengals defense, that had one of the best defenses in the league this year. They gave up the second least amount of points in the entire league at 17.4 points per game. Nelson had 77 tackles, 2 fumble recoveries, 8 interceptions, and 14 passes defended. The 8 interceptions were tied with Marcus Peters for the most in the league.

Last, Tyrann Mathieu was the third Free Safety. He got hurt late in the season, so he was only able to play 14 games this year. He finished the year with 89 tackles, 1 sack, 1 forced fumble, 5 interceptions, 1 touchdown, and 17 passes defended. He is a young player that will be in many more Pro Bowls to come, if injuries don’t continue to plague his career.

Now let’s take a look at Reshad Jones 2015 numbers. He had 135 tackles (almost double each of these players tackle totals), 2 sacks, (only Mathieu had a sack), 1 fumble recovery (each of these players had at least one fumble recovery), 5 interceptions (they each had at least 5 interceptions), 2 touchdowns (only Mathieu had 1 touchdown), and 10 passes defended (which was third best of these players). Jones’ statistics were better in practically every category. The amazing part is he was playing the Strong Safety position which mean he not only dominated at the run support job of SS, but he also dominated in pass coverage which is usually a Free Safety’s responsibility – he was the complete package.

If I am not mistaken the Pro Bowl selections are supposed to be the best players at each position. Unfortunately for Jones, the Pro Bowl ins’t a true account of the best players in the league for that particular season. Problem for Jones is the once elite Miami Franchise is no longer elite and no longer as popular and it make good Dolphins players chances slimmer in the popularity contest. Yes, it could and should be said that Pouncy didn’t deserve his Pro Bowl – but, the Center position is a position that most band wagon fans don’t even know exists.

At least for Miami Dolphins News fans sake, Jones is going to have an even greater incentive to play well next season, after his epic snub this year. Jones truly wants to make the Pro Bowl and be considered the best. He was even doing the Hula dance after a big play during the season. Hopefully, next season when he plays just as well, the Dolphins will his desire and finally crawl out of the drain and both will finally get some respect. Go Fins!!!