Over the weekend, Mike Florio at Pro Football Talk announced that Green Bay Packers LB Clay Matthews was voted for The Derrick Thomas Award. This award goes to the best linebacker in the NFL, and is voted on by his readers. No real honor for the award, but it's another reminder of Matthews fast accent into the NFL elite. It's amazing that he's done this all in only his second NFL season.
Speaking of other fan voted, non-awards, Kevin Seifert compiled his All-NFC North team last week. Ten of the twenty-two starters were Packers, so the team was well represented. The only surprise was Packers RT Bryan Bulaga's inclusion, but that's due in part to the poor state of right tackles in the NFC North.
The only player I would have loved to seen included was LB Desmond Bishop. This team only had three linebacker spots, one already taken by Matthews, and the other two went to LB Brian Urlacher and LB Lance Briggs. Too bad that this phantom team wasn't a 3-4 alignment, and could have made room for another inside linebacker. Is there any other Packer who didn't make that All-NFC North team that was a real snub? Maybe TE Jermichael Finley over TE Brandon Pettigrew even though he only played in five games?