I'm sure Pro Football Focus got a little uptick in recognition after Chicago Bears general manager Phil Emery mentioned them in his press conference last week, but those of you that frequent Windy City Gridiron already know all about PFF and their grading system. If you're into the stat heavy, number crunching, side of the NFL you need to check out their premium content.
Pro Football Focus recently named their 2012 All-Pro team, and since they usually take a more analytical approach to things we wanted to bring you their results. The PFF All-Pro team isn't 11 offense, 11 defense, and a few special teamers, so be sure to check out their full squad.
On offense the Bears placed wide receiver Brandon Marshall on the 2nd team, and here's what they said about Marshall;
His best year as a Pro as Marshall put all the talk behind him and simply delivered.
They had him second team behind Detroit's Calvin Johnson (duh), and Houston's Andre Johnson (huh?), but a deeper look into the numbers show Andre as their top graded wide out on the year. So. It'd be kinda hard not to have him on the 1st team. If you weren't following Texans football, you may not have noticed the awesome year he had, 112 catches and 1598 yards.
Brandon Marshall graded out as their 9th best WR for 2012.
The Bears did have one 1st team PFF All-Pro member on defense, and that was corner back Charles Tillman. Here's what they said about Tillman;
The man who just kept forcing fumbles probably doesn't get his due for how talented a cover corner he is. If you don't believe us look at how little damage Calvin Johnson did when the Bear was tracking him. Tillman rarely lets anything or anyone go over the top of him.
Part of Tillman's late career notoriety may be because he's mastered his part of the Tampa 2 defense, but he's always been a very underrated corner. Even through he's not asked to man up on a lot of wide receivers, he's had his fair share of wins when matched up one on one.
Tillman was the 4th graded CB by PFF in 2012, and his running mate Tim Jennings was 9th. I wonder if Jennings didn't miss those two games, if he would have found a spot on the PFF All-Pro team too?