Baltimore Ravens: Looking Back At Pro Bowlers on All-Star Day

By Joe Serpico | Jul 14, 2015

The Baltimore Orioles will be well represented in tonight’s MLB All-Star Game with four deserving All-Stars in attendance at the Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati. The All-Star festivities kicked off with a bang, with Cincinnati Reds slugger Todd Frazier stealing the show by winning the Home Run Derby in exciting fashion in front of the Cincinnati fans. Watching Frazier feed off that crowd as he launched homer after homer sent chills down your spine. Anyone who does not believe in the importance of home field advantage in baseball, just watch last night’s performance.

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The Baltimore Ravens also had four Pro Bowl players, the NFL’s equivalent to an All-Star. The Ravens had three players selected to the Pro Bowl (Elvis Dumervil, C.J. Mosley and Marshal Yanda) and Justin Forsett made the squad as a first alternate. Baltimore also had four more players named as alternates if a player selected were to be injured or play in the Super Bowl. Those players were Terrell Suggs, Jacoby Jones, Kyle Juszczyk and Sam Koch.

This season was the second year in which the Pro Bowl has adopted a new style for how the teams are selected. The new format lets the captains pick anyone from the player pool as opposed to previous years where the matchup was AFC vs. NFC. An interesting dynamic to this game is that teammates during the regular season could face off in the Pro Bowl.

Ravens Head Coach John Harbaugh led the team selected by Hall of Famer Cris Carter that ultimately fell to Team Irvin, 32-28. Harbaugh was not originally planned to coach one of the teams, but took the gig after the Denver Broncos parted with John Fox just days after the end of their season.

Dumervil made his fourth Pro Bowl appearance, but his first with the Ravens. Dumervil was an absolute animal in his second season with Baltimore, recording 17 sacks and earning All-Pro honors as well.

Yanda earned his fourth straight selection to the Pro Bowl and should be considered one of the top offensive lineman in football. Pro Football Focus ranked Yanda as their top lineman in 2014 and was ranked No. 79 in the NFL Top 100. Ranking one of the best at his position at 79th is disrespectful to Yanda, but the guard will gladly take the wins over recognition.

Mosley’s Pro Bowl berth deserves praise because he will go down as the first Ravens’ rookie to be nominated. Not Ray Lewis. Not Jonathan Ogden. Not Ed Reed. It was no fluke either. The first-year pro was the runner up for NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year after recording 133 tackles, three sacks and two interceptions.

Forsett was included in the Pro Bowl to take the place of Houston Texan Arian Foster who couldn’t play because of an injury. He easily had the best season of his career, rushing for 1,266 yards and eight touchdowns. It was the first time Forsett reached the 1,000-yard mark. He was also praised by his peers who ranked him the 65th best player in the Top 100 Players of 2015.

The Orioles and Ravens have bonded and embraced each other. It’s fantastic to see Baltimore have so many recognized stars. Most of the other East Coast cities have players across the four major sports to build around, but Charm City has just two professional sports teams.

We wish Adam Jones, Darren O’Day, Manny Machado and Zach Britton the best in tonight’s game.

Next: Ravens Should Be Grateful For Marc Trestman

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