To properly evaluate who's playing best, you have to look beyond the statistics

A couple of weeks ago, I was talking to Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora. New York had played Seattle the week before, and I asked him if Walter Jones was the best left tackle he has faced.

"Without question," Umenyiora replied. "The guy is unbelievable."

"Well, you had a heck of a game against him," I said. "Nice job."

"I have to be honest with you," he said. "I had two sacks and three pressures. But other than those five plays, I never got near the quarterback. Jones wore me out."

I watched the tape, and I must admit Umenyiora was being a bit modest about his impact on the game. However, by the way most defensive linemen are judged--their stats--he had a monster day. Shoot, a D-lineman can get one sack, do nothing the next 60 plays, repeat that 15 times and find himself in the Pro Bowl. When people look at the sack leaders and see the guy at the top with 16, he's a shoo-in. Maybe that guy is a stud such as Dwight Freeney, but he also could be someone who made only 16 plays all season.

Same thing with defensive backs. The top players in interceptions may be the guys who are least feared and therefore most regularly challenged by quarterbacks. Cornerback Sheldon Brown became famous last season for being the one member of the Eagles' secondary who didn't make the Pro Bowl, and he probably was the best of the bunch. But he had only two interceptions on his resume. Sorry, Sheldon.

The performance of quarterbacks and maybe running backs can be assessed fairly accurately with stats. But for most positions, the only way to know who plays best down after down is to watch film. Fans don't do that. They see game broadcasts and SportsCenter highlights, leaving only stats to help judge performance. Players don't see much more than fans. They watch film, but they focus on their direct matchup, such as wide receivers against defensive backs. Players don't see both sides of the hall in the film room, much less all the teams in the league.

For the most part, the only Pro Bowl voters who watch enough film to cast a decent ballot are the coaches. For the other two-thirds of the voting constituency, it's largely a popularity contest. 1 guess that's OK if it's what fans want. But if the idea is to send the best players to Hawaii, coaches should do all the voting.

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