Vontae Davis Deserves to Make the Pro Bowl for the Indianapolis Colts

Although the NFL's season is less than two-thirds of the way done, Pro Bowl voting is well underway. 

NFL.com released the early results of fan voting last week, announcing the top vote-getters in each position. 

The Colts had their fair share of representatives, including QB Andrew Luck, WR T.Y. Hilton, K Adam Vinatieri and P Pat McAfee in the top five of their respective positions. Ahmad Bradshaw and Dwayne Allen each snuck in the top 10 at running back and tight end, respectively. 

But none of the above were surprising. Luck, Hilton, Vinatieri and McAfee all deserve Pro Bowl berths, and while Bradshaw and Allen would be long shots, they certainly deserve recognition for how well they have played to start the season. 

The defensive results, however, were surprising to me. Just one player from Indianapolis made the top 10 in their respective positions, but it's not the name most would select, with Vontae Davis having the best season a Colts cornerback has had in the millennium. 

Michael Conroy/Associated Press

Linebacker D'Qwell Jackson is instead the lone player that the majority of fans have chosen, currently placing seventh in all inside linebacker voting. 

But Jackson doesn't deserve a spot in the Pro Bowl, while Davis does. Davis is playing as well as any cornerback in the league this season, with Denver's Chris Harris Jr. being the sole player who could match Davis' year on paper. 

At this point in his career, Jackson is living off of reputation alone in the eyes of fans. Since signing his four-year, $22 million contract, Jackson has been more of a negative force on the defense than a positive. The Colts desperately needed two things at linebacker this offseason: a run-stuffer and a man-coverage stud. Jackson, at his ripe age of 31, is too slow to match up with the league's faster pass-catchers and running backs in man coverage and hasn't been strong against the run in years. 

While the intangibles are there with Jackson, and that's something that coach Chuck Pagano and GM Ryan Grigson value very highly, the play on the field has been predictably underwhelming. 

In 11 games so far this year, Jackson has had eight games with a negative grade from Pro Football Focus (subscription needed), including seven with a grade of -1.0 or worse (a "red" grade). He is ranked 57th out of 61 qualifying inside linebackers, with negative grades in every category but penalties. He has allowed the sixth-highest passer rating when targeted in coverage of those 61 inside linebackers. 

Jackson defenders will point to his high tackle numbers (tied for seventh in the league), but tackles by themselves really mean very little as a stat. Considering that the Colts run defense has been just as bad this year, if not worse (31st in the league in rushing defense DVOA by Football Outsiders, 22nd last year), it's hard to give Jackson much credit. 

So no, nothing about Jackson's play this year has been Pro Bowl worthy. 

Davis, on the other hand, has been stellar this season, and the numbers back it up. 

	2014 Statistic	2014 Year	2013 Stat	2013 Ranking
Passer Rating	36.7	1	98.2	63
Yards/Cover Snap	0.78	4	1.06	26
Cover Snaps/Rec. Allowed	15.7	3	12.3	14
YAC Allowed	64	5	207	33
Tackling Efficiency	33.0	5	13.3	19
PFF Grade	15.4	2	16.0	4

Last season, Davis was good for most of the year, but he got burned on deep routes over the top for big plays occasionally. This season, he's been miles better on boundary routes, weekly shutting down any potential go routes from opposing receivers. 

Sure, Davis allows a reception here and there on inside breaking routes, but he's been excellent overall. 

On Sunday against the Jaguars, Davis got his third interception of the year. The pick itself was overlooked because of Blake Bortles' horrific throw, but look at Davis' coverage before this throw to TE Marcedes Lewis: 

NFL Game Rewind

Even if Bortles throws that high and outside, Davis has excellent position from which to play the ball.

Davis had a few more standout plays in Sunday's contest as well, including a great pass defense on a Cecil Shorts post route and another knockdown against Lewis in the red zone. 

While he's been beaten by quick routes occasionally, most of Davis' play has looked just like that throughout the season. It will get overlooked because of the Colts' overall lack of talent on defense, making for some ugly-as-sin performances against good offenses. Davis has been fantastic, but good quarterbacks can find far too many holes elsewhere for it to be of any consequence (or, in Tom Brady's case, they can just hand the ball off to a no-name running back). 

In light of those performances, the talk of Davis' stellar season has slowed dramatically since the first half of the year, but Davis still deserves his recognition. Davis is the one piece that the Colts have, defensively, worth building around. Indianapolis realized it before the season and signed him to a very fair four-year, $39 million deal. Now, the Colts have made Davis even more important with Robert Mathis being out for the season.

Indianapolis' entire defensive scheme and pressure philosophy is built around the fact that Davis won't get burned. With little-to-no safety help, the pressure on Davis to be consistently good is higher than ever. And so far, Davis has responded.

I've written about this before, but it's worth saying again: Even in a year with some very good cornerback performances, Davis absolutely, 100 percent deserves a Pro Bowl selection. D'Qwell Jackson does not. 

Maybe the title of this article should have been "Why the NFL Should Get Rid of Fan Voting for the Pro Bowl."