The NFL All-Joe team is an honor that USA Today bestows on the best players in the league each year that has never made the Pro Bowl, the best every-man players to play in the NFL. The Dallas Cowboys only had two players make the Pro Bowl team this season but also had two that earned All-Joe honors.
Inside linebacker Sean Lee remains one of the best pass defending linebackers in the entire NFL. He finished 2011 with a league high four interceptions for linebackers with 105 total tackles and seven pass defenses.
Lee is a former Penn State Nittany Lions' standout who Dallas drafted in the second round of the 2010 NFL Draft. In his rookie season with the Cowboys, Lee suffered through some injuries in preseason and struggled through much of his rookie year. Wade Phillips turned the college outside linebacker into an inside backer and Lee had his best game of his rookie year against the Indianapolis Colts, where he recorded two interceptions, returning one for a touchdown.
In 2011, Rob Ryan promoted Lee into the starting lineup and he excelled. He picked off a pass in his first game of the season and never looked back. What kept Lee out of the Pro Bowl might be the dislocated wrist in the seventh game of the season. Lee played with a cast on his hand for the rest of the year but it limited him the remainder of the season.
Laurent Robinson was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons but failed to break out and ended up with the St. Louis Rams. He struggled in St. Louis and ended up starting 2011 without a home. However, a hamstring injury to Miles Austin left Dallas in need of immediate assistance. They called Robinson and never regretted it.
Robinson finished the season with 54 receptions for 858 yards and a team-high 11 touchdowns, all career highs for Robinson.
Author Shawn S. Lealos has a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma (2000) and has been a Dallas Cowboys' fan since he was a child. His favorite players range from Roger Staubach and Tony Dorsett to the Triplets of the 90s and he enjoys talking about all Cowboys' related news, good or bad
