Browns left tackle Joe Thomas had his case for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame bolstered Tuesday.
Thomas became the eighth player in NFL history to begin a career with nine Pro Bowls in his first nine seasons. The other seven — Jim Brown, Merlin Olsen, Mel Renfro, Barry Sanders, Lawrence Taylor, Franco Harris and Derrick Thomas — are in the hall of fame.
Thomas also tied the franchise record for Pro Bowl nods, joining Brown and Lou Groza.
“Jim Brown and Lou Groza are two of the greatest Browns of all time, and the list of players who have been selected to the Pro Bowl their first nine seasons is a who’s who of NFL history,” Thomas said in a news release. “The neat thing about that list is that it spans many generations. To be included with names like those is pretty special and very humbling.”
Thomas and center Alex Mack were the only players voted to the Pro Bowl this season from the Browns (3-11), who are tied for the league’s worst record with the Tennessee Titans.
Players will be assigned to teams during the Pro Bowl draft on Jan. 27. The Pro Bowl will be held on Jan. 31 at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu. Each player on the winning team will earn $58,000, and each player on the losing squad will receive $29,000, per the collective bargaining agreement.
Mack had been selected to the Pro Bowl once before and appeared in the all-star game another time after being named an alternate and replacing the New York Jets’ Nick Mangold, who was injured at the time. Mack missed 11 games last season with a broken left fibula, so bouncing back with a Pro Bowl qualifies as a tremendous feat.
“It’s an honor to be voted to this year’s Pro Bowl, especially coming off of a season where I had to watch from the sidelines for the first time,” Mack said in the release. “It was a lot of work during the offseason to come back from injury, but it was all worth it to be back on the field with my teammates. As a lineman, you depend on the man next to you, and I owe a lot of this honor to my teammates and coaches. Unfortunately, we haven’t had the success that we wanted this year, but I look forward to representing Cleveland and the Browns in Hawaii.”
Three Browns players were selected as Pro Bowl alternates: tight end Gary Barnidge, wide receiver Travis Benjamin and special teams ace Johnson Bademosi.
With 68 catches for 930 yards and nine touchdowns in a breakout season, Barnidge was snubbed. He has more catches than three of the four tight ends selected, more receiving yards than two of them and more touchdown catches than two of them.
The following tight ends were chosen ahead of Barnidge:
• Tyler Eifert of the Cincinnati Bengals (48 catches, 564 yards, 12 touchdowns)
• Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs (65 catches, 822 yards, four touchdowns)
• Greg Olsen of the Carolina Panthers (71 catches, 1,048 yards, seven touchdowns)
• Rob Gronkowski of the New England Patriots (66 catches, 1,072 yards, 11 touchdowns)
Barnidge’s counterparts, though, have an advantage because they’re on winning teams. The Bengals, Panthers and Patriots have clinched playoff berths. The Chiefs (9-5) are in the hunt and will host the Browns on Sunday.
Pro Bowl players are determined by the consensus votes of fans, players and coaches. Each group’s vote counts one-third toward determining the 86 selections.
Although Barnidge was left out, a dismal record didn’t prevent the Browns from having two-fifths of their starting offensive line selected.
Since the Browns drafted Thomas third overall in 2007, he has started all 142 games without missing an offensive snap. His stretch of 8,815 consecutive snaps is the longest active streak in the league, and his 142 consecutive starts trails only Jets tackle D’Brickashaw Ferguson (159) among active players. Last year, Thomas became the first offensive lineman in NFL history to make the Pro Bowl in each of his first eight seasons.
Mack has started 99 games, third-most by a Browns player since 1999. The 21st overall pick in 2009, Mack had started 85 games and played 5,279 consecutive offensive snaps until he suffered the broken leg last year. He hasn’t missed a snap since his return.
Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Browns blog at www.ohio.com/browns. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/NateUlrichABJ.