The NFL and the Pro Football Hall of Fame provided a gift to the content-starved masses Monday, naming 55 players to the All-Decade team of the 2010s.
Some, including 49ers fullback Kyle Jusczyk, immediately sprung into action to note those who were left off. The Twitter mentions for NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport’s story, as just one example, are littered with fans asking “Where is [insert NFL player here]?”
The 49ers were well-represented on the list, with franchise legends Frank Gore, Joe Staley and Patrick Willis all making the cut. Richard Sherman did, too, although his Seattle Seahawks stint surely was on the minds of most voters. But did any other San Francisco players warrant inclusion?
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Linebacker NaVorro Bowman and punter Andy Lee have the best cases, but one is a much bigger snub than the other.
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Bowman, who retired in 2019, finished the 2010s with the eighth-most solo tackles (585) among linebackers and the 11th-most combined (798). His three seasons of 100-plus solo tackles were the third-most in the decade. The pick-six in Candlestick Park’s last game plus his status as a stalwart in the 49ers’ dominant Jim Harbaugh-era defense only boosts Bowman’s status as a San Francisco icon.
Yet Bowman’s inclusion arguably would come at the expense of Willis, his longtime teammate. Willis retired after playing just six games in the 2014 season, ending the decade with three First Team All-Pro selections and four Pro Bowl nods. Bowman was First-Team All-Pro four times and a three-time Pro Bowler.
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Luke Kuechly and Bobby Wagner, the other two inside linebackers who made the NFL’s All-Decade team, each were First Team All-Pro five times and were named to seven and six Pro Bowls, respectively. Willis’ feet and Bowman’s ACL and Achilles injuries perhaps robbed both 49ers of more appearances, but Kuechly and Wagner accomplished more in the 2010s.
Chandler Jones, Khalil Mack and Von Miller made the cut as outside linebackers, even though the All-Decade team featured four defensive ends and thus (hypothetically) wouldn’t line up in a 3-4 defense. But Miller was a unanimous selection, while Jones and Mack’s dominance shouldn’t be discounted. The voters seemed committed to having three inside linebackers and three outside linebackers, and a longtime 49er thus would've been snubbed regardless.
Lee’s exclusion, on the other hand, is more of a head-scratcher. He, unlike All-Decade punters Shane Lechler and Johnny Hekker, played every season of the decade and ended it with a higher yards-per-punt average (47.9) than both punters. Lee finished the 2010s with two of the 10 highest single seasons in terms of yards per punt, including the decade’s highest in 2010 (50.9).
Lechler and Hekker are No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, on the NFL’s all-time yards per punt leaders (min. 250 punts). Hekker’s career began in 2012, but his 2010s weren’t as prolific as Lee’s and neither were Lechler’s.
Lee fit the committee’s eligibility criteria, having made two First Team All-Pro appearances and a Pro Bowl in the 2010s. That basically is equivalent to Lechler, who made a First Team All-Pro and two Pro Bowl appearances, but Lee doesn’t carry the reputation as arguably the greatest punter of all time. Hekker made First Team All-Pro and the Pro Bowl every year from 2015 through 2017, likely benefitting from those accolades and their recency.
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Ray Guy is the only punter in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, making an All-Decade team pretty much the professional pinnacle for recognition at the position. Lee’s exclusion, then, is more meaningful than Bowman’s. The longtime linebacker might not be headed to Canton, Ohio either, but his placement in the 49ers’ Hall of Fame -- or even a jersey retirement -- is easier to envision than it is for Lee, a specialist who now has played for four different teams.
To borrow a line from Rich Eisen: Punters are snubs, too.