For the second consecutive season, the Jets will be well represented in the Pro Bowl on Jan. 31 in Miami — but curiously not by one of their best players.
While the Jets placed three starters on the AFC roster as the teams were announced yesterday, one of those players was not running back Thomas Jones, who’s third in the NFL in rushing with 1,324 yards and second with 12 touchdowns.
One year after they had four starters on the AFC roster, the Jets had three players selected to the team — cornerback Darrelle Revis, left guard Alan Faneca and center Nick Mangold.
They had three first alternates — Jones, left tackle D’Brickashaw Ferguson and linebacker Bart Scott, and two second alternates, linebacker David Harris and defensive end Shaun Ellis.
For Faneca, it will be his ninth consecutive Pro Bowl as a starter. For Revis and Mangold, it will be the second, but first as starters.
Making the Jones omission from the starting lineup even more surprising was the fact that he was a starter last year.
“To see TJ’s number not get called is disappointing,” Mangold said. “I know he doesn’t care about the recognition for him, but I’d like to see him get that recognition.”
Added Faneca: “Thomas not being on there is very surprising. You’re talking about a guy who’s third in the entire NFL in rushing. He’s a guy that should be on there.”
As for Revis, who is a legitimate candidate for Defensive Player of the Year with his six interceptions, one returned for a touchdown, and his consistent shutting down of some of the league’s top receivers, he said becoming a Pro Bowl starter was one of his “personal goals.”
“I worked hard this offseason and it’s carrying over on the field,” Revis said. “This time I’m a starter. It’s just the next step, another step for me.”
Mangold called being voted in as a starter “a humbling experience.” Faneca called going for the ninth consecutive time “a great honor; it never gets old.”
* The Giants will be sending one player — center Shaun O’Hara, who also went to last year’s Pro Bowl. He is the first Giant to be voted to back-to-back Pro Bowls since Tiki Barber and Jeremy Shockey in 2005-06.
O’Hara is the first Giants offensive lineman to go in consecutive seasons since guard Ron Stone in 2000 and 2001, and the team’s first center since Bart Oates in 1990 and 1991.
“You don’t know if it’s going to be a one-time thing or you’re going to get to do it again,” O’Hara said. “You almost treat it like a Super Bowl and try to soak it all in and say, ‘This may be the only one I get to.’
“To be going back again, I am just very blessed and I can’t help but think that this reflects more on my unit and the guys around me than me,” O’Hara said. “I’m excited about it. It’s a little excitement in an otherwise sad 48 hours.” — Additional reporting
by Paul Schwartz