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Steven Senne/Associated Press

The NFL Pro Bowl is supposed to be a spectacle with the world's finest football players on the same field in one almighty convergence of greatness.

Instead, fans are often treated to a watered-down exhibition that doesn't include many of the top players due to injuries or playoffs. The hitting is comical and the actual competition is a farce.

Imagine, if you will, a bizzaro world where the NFL's top performers gather to vigorously compete in an All-Star event that highlights the best and brightest the game has to offer.

This isn't the Pro Bowl game fans will get, but it's what they deserve.

In order to do so, the league's elite performers need to be identified early in the process starting at the midseason mark. Not everyone is as easily recognizable as Tom Brady. The following are the NFL's best through nine weeks of play. Each has an opportunity to compete during the next eight weeks and earn a nomination to the 2018 Pro Bowl in Orlando, Florida.