Five Bears make Pro Bowl

The Bears have gone 0-5 without Jay Cutler. Cutler wasn't selected for the Pro Bowl. Are we sure any of his teammates really deserve to be?

Deserved or not, five Bears — Matt Forte, Lance Briggs, Brian Urlacher, Charles Tillman and Corey Graham — were chosen for the NFL's All-Star game yesterday. Though I pay about as much attention to the Pro Bowl as I pay to the WNBA preseason or the Belk Bowl, that got my attention. THIS Bears team really has FIVE Pro Bowlers???

None of the five is a stone-cold, can't-miss lock to be selected — Forte may well have been had he not gotten hurt — but having reviewed the list, I can't say any of the five is horrendously undeserving. I don't think either Urlacher or Briggs is really worthy, but they've more or less become annual selections (though neither, particularly Urlacher, usually plays in the actual game. Or so I hear). Both have showed signs of decline this year, in my view, but they're still good players.

I thought Tillman was worthy of his first Pro Bowl selection a month ago, but he's struggled some since. This is his ninth season in a very productive career. He's been worthy of a Pro Bowl nod or two at some point; it might as well finally happen during a season in which NFC cornerbacks have been carved up by the conference's incredible collection of elite quarterbacks. (Think about this: in a season where the AFC placed Philip Rivers and Ben Roethlisberger on its Pro Bowl roster basically by default, as they've both played poorly — by their standards, anyway — the NFC had Tony Romo, Matt Ryan, Cutler, Matthew Stafford, Cam Newton and Alex Smith NOT get selected. No wonder the NFC's cornerback pool seems weak.) I do, however, find it ironic that Tillman — who may be the greatest ball-puncher in NFL history — gets selected for a year during which he has just three forced fumbles.

I'm more OK with the other two Bears picks than the three defensive ones. Graham is very, very good at what he does on special teams. Again, there is some irony in him being picked now — the Bears' special teams have been ordinary for more than a month, and Graham's most memorable play this year was being called for holding on the clever Johnny Knox punt return against the Packers — but it's nice to see his work recognized. And while Forte has been out for a month, he was the most productive back not named LeSean McCoy in the conference before he went down. Plus, there isn't anyone really worthy that's left out due to his inclusion.