San Francisco linebacker NaVorro Bowman is healthy and ready to go for the 49ers after missing 12 games last year with a torn Achilles tendon. That was his second major injury in the last three years after he missed the entire 2014 season with a knee injury. And he thinks those injuries have people underrating him as one of the league’s top linebackers.
“For the respect not to be presented and given, it just doesn’t make sense to me,” Bowman told the San Francisco Chronicle.
Bowman noted that he wasn’t included in this year’s NFL Network list of the Top 100 players in the NFL.
“It’s still a joke,” Bowman said. “I’m getting paid like a top-100 player. What more do you want? They’re not giving away money. I’ve earned every single thing I have.”
Bowman said he considers himself the best linebacker in football.
“A healthy Bowman is still the best linebacker in the NFL,” he said. “What else has stopped me? A knee and an Achilles. What else? What else can you say about me?”
If Bowman wants others to believe that, words will matter less than actions. He can prove it on the field, starting on Sunday.