The NFL recently released its all decade team for the 2010s and it was what you would expect. Tom Brady, JJ Watt and the usual suspects all got their shine. But who would make the NFL 2010s NOT all decade team? We here at The Touchback are up to the challenge.
We have put together the NFL 2010s NOT all decade team. These are the players that disappointed, underwhelmed and just weren’t very good during the past ten seasons. Remember, longevity counts, but isn’t the end all, be all.
The Touchback’s NFL 2010s NOT all decade team
Quarterback
Blake Bortles
Tom Brady was a unanimous selection for the NFL 2010s all decade team. His counterpart on the NFL 2010s NOT all decade team was also a unanimous pick. Simply put, no quarterback was as bad for as many years in the 2010s as Blake Bortles.
In 73 starts between 2014 and 2018, he managed to throw 75 interceptions as well as fumble the ball 46 times. He is a career 59 percent passer and never really looked like anything other than a below average player. Despite this, the Jacksonville Jaguars gave Bortles five seasons under center even though media, fans, and anyone who watched him play believed the team should give someone else a shot.
Bortles also had what is perhaps the worst career year in the history of football when you weigh stats against the results. His 4,424 yard, 35-touchdown season in 2015 made him a legend in fantasy, but Jacksonville went 5-11. In those five victories, Bortles passing yard high was 273 yards and he threw for more than two touchdowns only once.
Running Back
Lamar Miller and Bilal Powell
If you have ever watched Lamar Miller play, you know why he is on this list. It is easy to make fun of a guy like Eddie Lacy, but at least he ran for more than 1,100 yards in a season. Miller has never done it despite being a starter for twice the amount of time as Lacy.
As for Bilal Powell, somehow he has been in the league since 2011 and has done nothing of note apart from that run in 2017 where he fell down and then scored. Only once has he led the team in carries and it’s not like the Jets have had stud running backs during his time in New York.
Here is a list of running backs who out carried Powell in a season during his time with the Jets: a very washed-up LaDainian Tomlinson (2011), Shonn Greene (2011/2012), Chris Ivory 2013/2014/2015), an on his way out of the league Chris Johnson (2014), a declining Matt Forte (2016), Isaiah Crowell (2018), Elijah McGuire (2018) and Le’Veon Bell (2019).
Wide Receiver
Marquise Goodwin and Ted Ginn
Marquise Goodwin always seemed like a wide receiver who was going to put it all together and become a good player. But we are now seven years into a career that has seen him clear 50 receptions in a season only once. Goodwin also failed to reach 1,000 receiving yards in a single season.
At the start of the decade Ted Ginn was seen as a return specialist, but he only has a single return touchdown since 2011 and his return yardage numbers aren’t anything to brag about. As a receiver, he caught more than 50 passes twice during the decade, but never topped 800 yards in a single season. Apart from a 10-touchdown outlier with Carolina in 2015, his decade was as unmemorable as it gets. Ginn hasn’t even been able to make a mark in the high-powered New Orleans Saints offense.
Tight End
Anthony Fasano
There were quite a few tight end candidates for the NFL 2010s NOT all decade team. It basically came down to a pair of former Miami Dolphins teammates, Charles Clay and Anthony Fasano. And while Clay has become the most disappointing tight end streamer in fantasy football for the past few years, Fasano doesn’t even have that going for him. He was basically a guy who would randomly catch two passes a game with like a five percent chance of one of those being a touchdown. His stat line for the 2010s reads: 118 games played, 206 receptions.
That being said, he does have some very unenthusiastic advice to give your children about how to catch a football. Something he wasn’t really known for during his career.
Offensive Tackle
Greg Robinson and Andre Smith
Greg Robinson has been criminally bad since being drafted second overall by the then St. Louis Rams in 2014. It kind of makes sense now as clearly he was making moves off the field.
Andre Smith was occasionally good, mostly below league average and somehow made it through the entire 2010s in the NFL. This was mostly with the Bengals, a team that clearly don’t understand what a sunk cost is. Not only did they draft him in 2009, but they have also signed him twice as a free agent after he was let go by other teams.
Offensive Guard
Jeremy Vujnovich and Billy Price
Here’s what Bleacher Report offensive line scout Ethan Young had to say about Jeremy Vujnovich in 2017: “I’m sure Jeremy Vujnovich is a great guy, but he has no business being on an NFL field at this point, and it’s frankly a joke that he has started every game up front for the Colts.”
Billy Price doesn’t have the longevity as others on this list, but he has been absolutely terrible when on the field. Oh, and he was taken before Lamar Jackson, Darius Leonard and Braden Smith, a much better offensive lineman, in the 2018 NFL draft.
Center
A.Q. Shipley
A.Q. Shipley is a backup caliber player who the Arizona Cardinals for some reason thought could be a starter. For three seasons, the Cardinals have run him out there at there at center and the results haven’t been great.
