CINCINNATI -- It's late December, meaning it must be time for the yearly tradition Andrew Whitworth has grown far too accustomed to.

When the Pro Bowl teams are announced Tuesday night, the Cincinnati Bengals left tackle may not hear his name called. If that indeed happens, it will be just the latest in a series of times when the deserving Whitworth has been snubbed.

And that's a shame.

Andrew Whitworth has basically been inpenetrable for the Cincinnati Bengals this season. Darron Cummings/Associated Press

At 33, Whitworth has arguably had his best season and has done so by accomplishing feats the majority of other tackles could only dream of doing.

But the days when rejection from the all-star game might bug him are long past.

"I'm used to that," Whitworth said earlier this week. "I don't know how many tackles haven't given up a sack all season, but I doubt it's many. But hey, I don't worry about that. I know all the guys who will be on it."

He wasn't in the top 10 of the Pro Bowl fan vote that closed Wednesday. The Browns' Joe Thomas led all offensive tackle vote-getters with nearly 343,000 votes. San Francisco's Joe Staley was the 10th tackle on the ballot with 118,050.

Still, there's a chance Whitworth could earn his second Pro Bowl selection through coach and player voting.

Whitworth wasn't Cincinnati's only top-10 snub. Punter Kevin Huber, who has been first or second in net punting average all season, wasn't in the fans' top 10. The only Bengal who was a top-10 fan selection was punt returner Adam Jones. He finished sixth in the fan balloting.

According to Pro Football Focus, Whitworth is one of four offensive tackles who haven't allowed a sack all season. Thomas and Staley have permitted one and four sacks, respectively. The other eight top-10 vote-getters have allowed a combined 26, an average of 3.3 per player.

Per PFF, Whitworth hasn't allowed a single pressure in eight games this season. On 463 pass-block snaps, he's given up just nine pressures, giving him a 98.7 pass-blocking efficiency rating, the highest in the NFL. Thomas isn't far behind with a 98.1 efficiency rating.

"I can't say enough about him and what he means," Bengals offensive coordinator Hue Jackson said of Whitworth. "He's having fun and he's really taking the mentality of leadership with that group."

According to Whitworth, health has been the key this season. After experiencing knee pain parts of the last two seasons and struggling with figuring how to address it, he began this season feeling better than he recently had.

"It's just a night and day world from playing on one leg like I did for two seasons," he said. "I get to explode, I can do what I want to do, and I can really pull anything out of the bag every week. I'm a lot more confident, and not really cocky -- I respect everybody I'm playing -- but I don't have a fear of anybody that's lining up across from me."

Even the player who will be paired against Whitworth on Monday night, Denver Broncos LB DeMarcus Ware, can see that.

"When you think about tackles, they'll say another name [first]," said Ware, who played against Whitworth often in college. "Usually they don't say him, but he's one of those guys that needs to be put in that echelon with the top tackles in the league."