Second half malaise suffocated my Pro Bowl campaign for Brandon Mebane. Mebane is my favorite player and the true heart of Seattle's run defense. Football Outsiders is running its annual awards and I would like Mebane to make a strong run for "most underrated defensive player in the NFL". Mebane is a true one tech, the kind of defensive tackle that demands double teams on almost every snap and frees surrounding playmaking talent to make plays. This season, Mebane added a sick first step and made some plays of his own. He tied for the team lead in sacks, and unlike Darryl Tapp's sacksplosion against Milford Brown in 2007, Mebane was consistently effective. His recorded a sack or split sack in six games. Mebane just turned 24 and in 2008 only cost ~550k against the cap. He's already a star level talent and an exceptional value. The kind of building block a great defense is built atop and truly underrated, undervalued and unknown by all but the hardcore. Do him and me a solid and show him some love.
On another note, Field Gulls is the reigning "favorite team-specific website or blog". That was very cool and a huge honor for me, so thanks again to everyone who made that happen.