Welcome to the new year decade. With that, a decade in the NFL defined by even more dominance, the continued exemplary play from future Hall-of-Fame quarterbacks approaching the end of their careers, the slow and gradual movement toward analytics, and the sudden emergence of a new era of superstar quarterbacks has reached its end. But before we move onto the next decade, it's time to take one final look back at the decade that just pa sed by piecing together one team that represents the best that the NFL had to offer over the past 10 years. It's time to unveil CBS Sports' NFL All-Decade Team. Over the past week, the members (roughly 20 in all) of the NFL editorial team here at CBS Sports cast their votes for the best players at every major position group. The votes were gathered, corresponding points were distributed to the players, and by the end of the lengthy proce s, we had ourselves an All-Decade Team.
Kristaps Porzingis Jersey What's surprising, but also encouraging, is that even though the voters did not have acce s to everyone else's ballots, most of us voted quite similarly. As a result, there weren't many notable snubs -- not in the sense that a few deserving players didn't mi s the cut (of course a few deserving players didn't garner the number of votes they probably deserved) -- but in the sense that there truly weren't many cases of a player mi sing out by only a couple of points. At most position groups, a clear-cut winner emerged. There wasn't much controversy. That said, there were three position groups where the margins were slim: right tackle, EDGE, and cornerback. The four players who mi sed the cut by the slimmest of margins? , , , and . But beyond those four players at those three position groups, the margins were wide. The end result is a team that most of the voters here at CBS Sports cannot be, for the most part, unhappy with. As for how you, the reader, will react, well, that could be an entirely different story. We leave that up to you. Below, you'll find CBS Sports' official NFL All-Decade Team. It should come as no surprise to hear that we're beginning with a certain quarterback named . Quarterback: Tom Brady It was nearly unanimous. All but one of our voters named Brady their top quarterback of the decade. It's nearly impo sible to
DeAndre Jordan Jersey argue against the selection. In the decade alone, Brady captured two regular-season MVP awards, two Super Bowl MVP honors, and two first team All-Pro selections -- cementing his status as the most accomplished quarterback in NFL history along the way. In he threw for the fourth-most yards, the second-most touchdowns, and won the most games by a wide margin. Running back: In the past decade alone, Peterson totaled 11,268 yards from scrimmage and 76 touchdowns. Among all running backs in that span, , and But what separates Peterson from those aforementioned running backs is just how dominant he was at his peak. In 2012, he dragged the to the
Jalen Brunson Jersey playoffs with 2,097 rushing yards, falling eight lousy yards short of tying set by Eric Dickerson in 1984. It remains impre sive that Peterson, even at age 34, has managed to hang around as a productive running back when most players at his position group fall off a cliff upon turning 30. The past two years in Washington, Peterson has averaged 1,145 yards and 6.5 touchdowns per season. He's the best running back of his generation. Fullback: Juszczyk is the rare fullback who is actually fun to watch, namely due to his ability to actually play a role in the pa sing game as a receiver. Over the past six seasons in Baltimore and San Francisco, he's averaged 30 catches and 274.5 receiving yards per season. He's also been named to four straight Pro Bowls. Wide receiver: The sixth overall pick in 2011, (as Fantasy owners can certainly attest to) among all receivers during the decade. He's almost always been an unguardable downfield threat due to his physicality, speed, and skillset. If not for a miraculous comeback by the Patriots, he'd also be remembered as a Super Bowl champion who made the best play of the game ( ). Even if he never gets a ring, he's on a Hall of Fame trajectory -- and he's not slowing down, as his 99-catch, 1,394-yard season so clearly demonstrates. Wide receiver: Before it all went so wrong for Brown in the past year, he emerged as the league's best receiver due to his reliable hands, route-running, and explosive speed. A sixth-round pick in 2010, Brown was at his best from 2011-18. During those seasons, . He was the best receiver in football and it wasn't that particularly close. The past year has certainly soiled his reputation -- rightly so -- but there's no doubt that at his peak, in terms of strictly playing receiver in the NFL, nobody was better. Slot receiver: Fitzgerald has been going strong in Arizona since 2004, but in the past decade alone, he's averaged 85.5 receptions, 1,001.6 receiving yards and 6.1 touchdowns. No receiver caught more pa ses than him in that span, and he also ranked third in receiving yards and seventh in touchdown catches. No one will ever forget the time with a 75-yard catch and run that preceded a 5-yard touchdown catch to eliminate the in overtime. Tight end: Rob Gronkowski There has never been a tight end as dominant as Gronk. He wasn't just an explosive and unstoppable pa s catcher, which he certainly was, but he was also an awesome
Seth Curry Jersey blocker. If you could create the perfect tight end from scratch, it'd be a Gronk replica. In his nine-year career, he racked up 7,863 yards and 80 touchdowns per scrimmage. To put those numbers into perspective, consider that the closest a tight end came to matching him in receiving yards was and Graham still fell 425 yards short of Gronk even though Graham played in 22 more games. Gronk averaged 0.7 touchdowns per game in his career. Graham averaged 0.52 touchdowns per game in that same span. Simply put, nobody came close to matching Gronk's efficiency or production. He was named first team All-Pro in four of his nine seasons and it likely would've been more if injuries hadn't robbed him of so many games. He's the best ever to play the position. I mi s watching him on Sundays. Left tackle: The ultimate iron man, Thomas set an NFL record by playing in 10,363 consecutive snaps. In his 11-year career, he was named first team All-Pro six times, with five of them coming in the decade. Thomas deserved far better than he got in Cleveland. The were ble sed with the best left tackle of the decade, but failed to take advantage of his consistent dominance by refusing to give him a franchise-caliber quarterback to protect. Left guard: For the past 10 seasons, Iupati has been one of the most consistent left guards in the game -- with his four trips to the Pro Bowl and one first team All-Pro honor serving as evidence. Among all guards in the past decade, he ranks
Justin Jackson Jersey fifth in approximate value, according to The other four guards were all better known for playing right guard. In that sen