Posted by ESPN.com's Mike Sando
After including players who became first-time Pro Bowl choices -- including Terence Newman, who briefly escaped detection until a reader slapped some sense into me -- I'm showing New England with a league-high 16 active players who have been named to at least one Pro Bowl during the course of their careers. I've got the rest of the AFC East with a combined nine. Dallas is close behind New England with 15, followed by San Diego (14), Chicago (12) and several teams with 10. The Jets, shut out in Pro Bowl voting this year, are at the bottom with two (Laveranues Coles and Shaun Ellis). These are unofficial totals.
Five New England players earned Pro Bowl recognition for the first time: Mike Vrabel, Vince Wilfork, Logan Mankins, Asante Samuel and Dan Koppen. We can no longer credit the Patriots for being so good on offense despite not having multiple Pro Bowl linemen. Mankins, Koppen and Matt Light are Hawaii-bound. If the Patriots lose in the AFC title game, Bill Belichick can coach them.
