Jaguars defensive tackle Sen’Derrick Marks guaranteed himself a $600,000 bonus with a sack of Charlie Whitehurst last Thursday night and it seems he’d like to spend some of that cash in Arizona.
Marks thinks he should be heading to the Pro Bowl after the season, but will need some help from the league’s players and coaches in order to make it to Glendale when the selections are announced on Tuesday night. Marks ranked 13th among defensive tackles in the now-concluded fan voting and he thinks his omission would uncover a flaw in the system.
“If it happens that way, then I say that the whole Pro Bowl voting and balloting is all BS,” Marks said, via Michael DiRocco of ESPN.com. “How do you look at it? Do you look at it as a guy that plays good on a good team or a guy that plays good on what you consider a team that doesn’t have the record? I thought it was supposed to be the guy who plays the best at that position that year. That’s what I thought it was. If it comes out that way, it wouldn’t bother me. It wouldn’t stop the way I play. It wouldn’t hurt my feelings at all.”
Marks has had a very strong season and is definitely worthy of Pro Bowl consideration. The problem is that there are enough good candidates that leaving out any particular one falls well short of a flaw in the system. Marcell Dareus, Aaron Donald, Sheldon Richardson (listed as a tackle for Pro Bowl purposes, as is teammate Muhammad Wilkerson), Ndamukong Suh, Gerald McCoy and Kyle Williams are just a few of the worthy choices for spots, which makes it hard to believe that anyone is going to outraged if they made it with Marks left on the outside.
The good news for Marks is that McCoy is on injured reserve and is just one of several players who could make it and cede their spot to someone who doesn’t make it so Marks could get into the game even if he doesn’t get to enjoy the gift of a trip to Arizona for Christmas.