The 2015 All-Cook Team: Offense

One of the best parts about the football season ending during the 1980s & 1990s was when John Madden would name his All-Madden Team. Madden would pick players that he thought represented football & played the way that he thought the game should be played,  and celebrate them on a TV special. He stopped doing the TV show when he moved to ABC's Monday Night Football, but the All-Madden Team still lives on in our hearts.

I think a fitting tribute to Madden, a man who explained football to a generation & who brought video game football to the ultimate level, would be to revive the tradition of selecting a team comprised of players that represent football and the way the game should be played. Phil Simms has an All-Iron Team, but who cares about Phil Simms? The All-Cook Team will be my annual feature (if I remember to do it next year) honoring players that play the game the way I feel it should be played, players I enjoy watching, and especially on the offensive side of the ball, players that bring me success on the fantasy football gridiron. What can I say...all of us fantasy players have our favorite guys.

Today we'll present the offense. So what do I look for in picking players for the All-Cook Team? Here's a brief list:

-Players with personality.
-Players that are uniquely talented.
-Players that help me out in Fantasy Football.

I also like players that come out of nowhere & surprise people. You'll see a couple of those. Without further adieu, here is the All-Cook Team Offense!

Quarterback: Cam Newton, Carolina Panthers

When it's all said and done, 2015 will be remembered as the year that Killa Cam took the next step up. Those of us who watched him at Auburn knew he had the skills. He had the arm. He could run. He was a mountain of a man that had the agility of a small man. He was the obvious #1 overall pick when he went pro. He had a great rookie season, but then he kind of stagnated. He was a boom or bust QB that had no talent around him and got more attention for his celebrations than anything else. When his one talented wide receiver got injured before the season started, we wrote him and his team off.

We were wrong. Cam flashed back to his Auburn days when he carried the Tigers to a national championship and has carried the Panthers to the Super Bowl. With all due respect to Jonathan Stewart, Teddy Ginn & the other guys on the Panthers offense, it's the Cam Newton Show. He passes, he runs, he does it all. How do you stop him? This season, you don't. We'll find out what the Denver Broncos can do in the Super Bowl.

Cam has silenced his doubters, but doubters have been replaced by haters. People write to their TV stations angry because Cam has the audacity to dance when he does something good. Because he has a good time playing football. This argument will pop up as long as there are old people watching football...I think sometime around the age of 50 a switch gets flipped and you stop wanting to see people dance. I kind of understood it back when Cam's teams were getting blown out by 40 and he'd still dance around, but now that his team is the best in the league, he's got full permission to style and profile. When you're the best, you can get away with it, and Cam's the best.

Quarterback: Russell Wilson, Seattle Seahawks

Wilson & his Seahawks didn't make as long of a run through the playoffs as they're accustomed to, but this was a big season for Russell as a quarterback. With Marshawn Lynch out of commission & Thomas Rawls eventually joining him on the sidelines, the pressure was on Wilson to deliver. He stepped up to the plate with career highs in passing yards & touchdowns, along with his highest completion percentage combined with his most passing attempts. He struggled through the first ten weeks of the season, but from Week 11 onward he was absolutely on fire. He's no longer that guy that can get by because he has a great running back & defense, he's a guy that can strap a team on his back and take them places.

Running Back: Adrian Peterson, Minnesota Vikings

Was anybody really surprised by AD's performance this season? Sure, he's 30 years old. Sure, he got most of last season off after getting suspended for off-field issues. Even so, I think we all knew that he would be productive. We weren't surprised that he got his third rushing title & was tied for the most touchdowns among running backs. We weren't even surprised that he led the league in rushing attempts. This is what Adrian Peterson does. I get the feeling he'll be doing it longer than most running backs in his era.

Running Back: DeAngelo Williams, Pittsburgh Steelers

We expect Peterson to do what he did, but nobody expected DeAngelo Williams to have the season he had. He was a middle of the road RB in Carolina forever, and popped up in Pittsburgh this year as Le'Veon Bell's backup. When Bell got suspended the first two games, Williams made it seem like there was no problem. When Bell got injured in Week 8 & missed the rest of the season, Williams made sure there was no dropoff. He had his personal best for rushing yards in a season since 2009 & had more than ten touchdowns for the second time in his ten seasons in the league. Even if he's a Steeler, you gotta take your hat off to him.

Wide Receiver: Odell Beckham Jr., New York Giants

I don't think there's a more exciting receiver in the NFL than Beckham. Eli Manning doesn't even need to be terribly accurate with Beckham on his team...he can throw the ball in OBJ's general direction and the kid will probably grab a hold of it somehow. At least once a week Twitter goes crazy over some catch he made. 1450 receiving yards, and he would have had over 1500 if he'd played all the games. The one black mark on his season was Week 15 & the business with Josh Norman. Yeah, he got a bit out of control, but I'll take that kind of player over the kind of player that'd just sit there and take the abuse from an aggressive cornerback. He'll learn from that.

Wide Receiver: Julio Jones, Atlanta Falcons

Jones led the league in receiving yards and had some of the most insane box scores of the season. He was on fire in Week 1-3, Week 8-11 & Week 15-17. Not that he was bad the rest of the time, but he just had some ridiculous games. We kind of forgot about him once his team fell off the face of the earth after winning 5 straight to start the season & looking like a contender, but it wasn't his fault they went into the toilet. He led all receivers in yards after catch for the season by a pretty wide margin.

Wide Receiver: Allen Robinson, Jacksonville Jaguars

I got a lot of flack from people in the Official offtheteam.com Fantasy Football League Draft when I took Robinson in the 6th round. A Jaguars WR? Was I crazy? Yup. Crazy like a fox. Robinson got 1400 yards, tied for the league lead in receiving touchdowns, and helped lead the Omaha Beef to the championship with consistent points. My most reliable player all season was Allen Robinson. Getting consistent fantasy points is a great way to earn praise from me.

Tight End: Rob Gronkowski, New England Patriots

There are all other tight ends, and there is Gronk. There is nobody in the league like him. His raw athletic ability combined with his charisma make him must-see television. Even people that are predisposed to hate the Patriots and people that don't like frat boys can't help but love Gronk. You can't pick a team without picking this guy. He is football.

Tight End: Gary Barnidge, Cleveland Browns

Prior to this season, Barnidge was most known for appearing on WWE Total Divas whilst dating Rosa Mendes & Summer Rae. His first seven seasons were split between Carolina & Cleveland and were completely & utterly irrelevant. This season, however, Gary Barnidge became a player. He got over a thousand receiving yards (he'd previously had 603 in his entire career) and scored nine touchdowns (he'd previously scored three in his entire career). Talk about coming out of nowhere! The Browns were a sorry bunch as they usually are, but the rise of Barnidge, which just so happened to be more of a thing when Josh McCown was leading the team, was fun times.  Nice to see somebody that had to play in the Steve Kragthorpe Era of Louisville football do well.

Tackle: Andrew Whitworth, Cincinnati Bengals

The Bengals drafted tackles with their first two draft picks in 2015. Its smart to prioritize the o-line in drafts because the line of scrimmage is where games are won and lost, but you know that Whit took that as a massive insult. He's been a leader in Cincinnati ever since he arrived, he doesn't think he's done yet, and his team opted to take two greenhorns instead of extending his contract? He had a right to be pissed, and he took it out on his opponents this year. Once again Whitworth was near the top graded tackles by Pro Football Focus, once again he was a Pro Bowler, and he got some more money out of the Bengals the good old fashioned way. You're going to have to kill Andrew Whitworth to take his spot on the Bengals line, and that's the kind of player I love.

Tackle: Joe Thomas, Cleveland Browns

Thomas has to be the best player in the history of the second version of the Cleveland Browns. Everything around him has been garbage for his entire career. You almost hope Hue Jackson can figure things out there for his sake. Then you remember they're the Browns and they deserve to suck.

Guard: Zack Martin, Dallas Cowboys

Martin was the guy the Cowboys took over Johnny Manziel. 2 years in its pretty obvious they made the right decision. I bet Jerry still wishes they took Manziel, but maybe he'll still get his man anyway.

Guard: Marshal Yanda, Baltimore Ravens

If you're the 2015 Ravens and have to rely on the likes of Ryan Mallet & Matt Schaub at quarterback, you almost don't want a guard as good as Yanda. He just gave those guys more time to do something stupid.

Center: Eric Wood, Buffalo Bills

He went to Louisville. That in itself is enough, but he places well in Pro Football Focus rankings and is one of my school's better ambassadors.

Next time we'll present the defense & special teams! Let me know what you think on Twitter or Facebook or wherever people like to comment on things these days. Thanks for reading!