Eight Saints finished in the top-five of their respective position in the NFL Fan Pro Bowl vote, the league announced on Wednesday.
The AFC and NFC All-Star squads are based on the consensus votes of fans, players and coaches. Each group's vote counts one-third towards determining the 43-man rosters that represent the American Football Conference and National Football Conference in the Pro Bowl. NFL players and coaches will cast their votes on December 22-23.
The teams will be announced at 7:00 pm (ET) Tuesday, December 28 on a special *NFL Total Access 2011 Pro Bowl Selection Show *on NFL Network.
QB Drew Brees finished No. 5 overall in the Fan Vote with 971, 731 votes. Brees finished behind Eagles QB Michael Vick (1,522,437) in NFC quarterbacks.
FB Heath Evans was the only Saint to finish No. 1 at their position as he earned 207,936 votes. Along with Brees and Evans, TE Jeremy Shockey, OG Jahri Evans, C Jonathan Goodwin, LB Jonathan Vilma, and safeties Malcolm Jenkins and Roman Harper all finished in the top-five of their respective position.
There was a record 98.59 million votes cast on NFL.com, on wireless phones and on Facebook. Fans cast 89.52 million votes on NFL.com, 8.50 million votes on their wireless phones and 570,000 votes on Facebook.
The 2011 Pro Bowl will be played on Sunday, January 30, 2011 and televised live on FOX at 7:00 pm (ET) at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii.
The NFL is the only sports league that combines voting by fans, coaches and players to determine its all-star teams. It was the first professional sports league to offer online all-star voting in 1995.
Listed below are the top 10 offensive and defensive vote-getters, the top five rookie-vote getters, and the players with the most fan votes at each position:
Listed below are the Pro Bowl Vote Totals that involve Saints players:
OVERALL BALLOT
New England Patriots Brady, Tom 1877079
Philadelphia Eagles Vick, Michael 1522437
Indianapolis Colts Manning, Peyton 1130399
San Diego Chargers Rivers, Philip 1039618
New Orleans Saints Brees, Drew 971731
Minnesota Vikings Peterson, Adrian 948410
Green Bay Packers Rodgers, Aaron 900544
Houston Texans Foster, Arian 710166
Jacksonville Jaguars Jones-Drew, Maurice 707913
Atlanta Falcons Ryan, Matt 704817
NFC
QB
Philadelphia Eagles Vick, Michael 1522437
New Orleans Saints Brees, Drew 971731
Green Bay Packers Rodgers, Aaron 900544
Atlanta Falcons Ryan, Matt 704817
Washington Redskins McNabb, Donovan 458637
FB
New Orleans Saints Evans, Heath 207936
Philadelphia Eagles Schmitt, Owen 154302
Atlanta Falcons Mughelli, Ovie 140822
Washington Redskins Sellers, Mike 137584
Minnesota Vikings Tahi, Naufahu 127225
TE
Atlanta Falcons Gonzalez, Tony 458527
Washington Redskins Cooley, Chris 340077
San Francisco 49ers Davis, Vernon 325005
Dallas Cowboys Witten, Jason 280598
New Orleans Saints Shockey, Jeremy 198499
GUARD
Green Bay Packers Sitton, Josh 214013
Minnesota Vikings Hutchinson, Steve 197870
New York Giants Snee, Chris 181818
New Orleans Saints Evans, Jahri 157478
Arizona Cardinals Faneca, Alan 137425
CENTER
New York Giants O'Hara, Shaun 232551
Green Bay Packers Wells, Scott 191770
Chicago Bears Kreutz, Olin 175670
New Orleans Saints Goodwin, Jonathan 175428
Atlanta Falcons McClure, Todd 154156
MIDDLE LB
Chicago Bears Urlacher, Brian 314584
San Francisco 49ers Willis, Patrick 259330
Green Bay Packers Hawk, A.J. 223626
New Orleans Saints Vilma, Jonathan 179092
Washington Redskins Fletcher, London 121740
Strong Safety
Washington Redskins Landry, LaRon 208112
New Orleans Saints Harper, Roman 117695
Arizona Cardinals Wilson, Adrian 110218
Philadelphia Eagles Mikell, Quintin 96094
New York Giants Phillips, Kenny 85528
Free Safety
New York Giants Rolle, Antrel 158478
Green Bay Packers Collins, Nick 144671
New Orleans Saints Jenkins, Malcolm 118478
Philadelphia Eagles Allen, Nate 115335
Seattle Seahawks Thomas, Earl 89016
