Falcons wide receiver Julio Jones, who’s turning in a record-breaking season, and second-year running back Devonta Freeman were selected to Pro Bowl team Tuesday.
Jones leads the NFL with 118 catches and the NFC with 1,544 yards receiving. He also has seven touchdowns.
“He’s as professional as you get,” Falcons coach Dan Quinn said. “He’s one of the best competitors I’ve ever been around.”
Freeman has combined to amass 1,450 yards from scrimmage and 12 touchdowns. He rushed for 907 yards on 218 carries and 10 touchdowns. He also has 68 catches for 543 yards and two touchdowns.
Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan believes that Jones can break the NFL’s single-season all-time catches record. Jones needs 26 to surpass Marvin Harrison’s record of 143 catches, which was set in 2002 while with the Indianapolis Colts.
In the second and third games of the season, against the Giants and Cowboys, Jones caught 13 and 12 passes, respectively.
“I’d love to see him get it, that’s for sure,” Ryan said Tuesday on 680 The Fan. “There is certainly a chance with how productive he’s been and with how good that he’s played all year. There’s definitely a chance that he could do that (over) the next two games.”
Jones broke Roddy White’s single-season Falcons mark Sunday. White’s record of 115 catches in a season was set in 2010.
“He broke the franchise record for single-season catches with two games to go,” Ryan said. “It’s such an unbelievable accomplishment.”
Freeman, who played at Florida State and was taken in the fourth round of the 2014 draft, had the most fan votes in the running back category.
Freeman’s hard-charging running style caught the attention of the voters.
He finished with 484,016 total votes. Freeman finished ahead of Minnesota’s talented running back, Adrian Peterson, who received 475,630 votes. The fan voting makes up a one-third of the process. Freeman’s vote total put him in the top 10 of total vote recipients for all positions.
Freeman is the first Falcons running back since Michael Turner in 2010 to be named to the Pro Bowl.
In Week 5 against Washington, Freeman became the first player with eight or more rushing touchdowns in a team’s first five games of a season since LaDainian Tomlinson (nine) and Shaun Alexander (eight) in 2005.
After only rushing for 248 yards all last season, Freeman has more than tripled that amount this season.
The Pro Bowl players are determined by the consensus votes of fans, players and coaches. Each group’s vote counts one-third toward determining the 88 All-Star players who will be eligible for the Pro Bowl Draft.
