Welcome back to Part II of our look at this year’s best possible Pro Bowl rosters! We covered the offense earlier this week; now, we have to dive into the muck that is the defensive side of the ball, as well as the mysterious land of special teams.

There’s not a lack of quality choices here, mind you; it’s just how the NFL chooses to highlight these choices that’s the problem. They still divide the front seven into defensive ends, defensive tackles, inside linebackers and outside linebackers, rather than grouping all the pass rushers together. This does get more pass rushers onto the roster, and part of the point of a Pro Bowl is to get as many stars in one place as possible which, fair enough. But pretending that Nick Bosa and Brian Burns play fundamentally different positions is a silly ritual the NFL insists we continue to go through. At the same time, they don’t split outside and slot corners, but do split strong and free safeties, so it’s very slapdash just which distinctions we’re supposed to care about and which we’re supposed to ignore.

In addition, special teams voting is hard. You can pick six long snappers! Can you name six long snappers? What about six special teams specialists? Even more so than most of the positions on the ballot, it’s a real muck of guesswork to get through there, and a significant portion of the votes will go to whoever is in the top middle of the ballot and easiest to click on.

Ah well. We’re here to help you fill out your ballot anyway. With the voting deadline being December 23, we’ve got to buckle up and pick the best of the best and brightest of the brightest. We’ll ignore the ballot’s arbitrary position limit (you can vote via social media, anyway), and give you one man’s take on the rest of the ideal 44-man rosters we’re sending to Orlando.

All stats through Week 14.

Defense

Defensive Ends

This year, the top pass rushers are tilted towards outside linebacker in the AFC and defensive end in the NFC, though the gap isn’t as big as in years past.

Even in down years for their teams, it’s hard not to call Nick Bosa and Micah Parsons the best two ends on the senior circuit. While both have missed some time to injury, both have been very disruptive when healthy and their absences have been sorely, sorely noted by both the 49ers and Cowboys. Note that last year, Parsons was listed as an outside linebacker, so we didn’t have to clog our defensive end position right away, but that’s where we stand now. Pairing them with Carl Granderson gives us the three highest pressure totals among eligible NFC ends – there are other players with more pressures, but they are all qualified as linebackers, so this is the best we can do. The AFC side fills up quickly, as well – Myles Garrett is a must-have, Trey Hendrickson leads the league in sacks and Greg Rousseau is fourth among edge rushers in defeats. That takes care of our quota before we can even get to someone like Will Anderson Jr. or Josh Hines-Allen, much less the off-rumored and mysterious 3-4 defensive end. Well, pass rushers are fun too, I suppose.

AFC: Myles Garrett, CLE; Trey Hendrickson, CIN; Greg Rousseau, BUF
NFC: Nick Bosa, SF; Carl Granderson, NO; Micah Parsons, DAL