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With all due respect to the Pro Bowl and the All-Star Games in baseball, basketball and hockey, they are essentially popularity contests.

It isn't an insult. In all of those instances, fans play a large part in selecting the teams. Those fans naturally vote for their favorite players.

That's not a bad thing per se, but it also isn't always an accurate reflection of the best of the best in a given sport in a particular year.

The NFL All-Pro team is different.

Each year, football writers gather to cast their votes for the AP's All-Pro team. The players they select are the cream of the NFL crop in a given season.

A trip to Hawaii for the Pro Bowl (or in this year's case, Orlando, Florida—yawn) is nice, but an All-Pro selection is a true honor.

Granted, the Bleacher Report All-Pro team hasn't been around as long as the Associated Press version. It doesn't quite have the cachet. And it's unlikely that any players have contract clauses that will net them bonuses for their inclusion here.

But the intrepid scribes who picked this year's squad study the game as much as anyone in the business. And just as they know the sport, they know who played it best in 2016.

And so, as we await the word from on high as to whom the AP has honored this season, here's a look at the 2016 Bleacher Report Expert Consensus NFL All-Pro Team.