Chris Lindstrom is headed to the Pro Bowl

The fourth-year guard gets his first Pro Bowl nod in his finest season yet.

Chris Lindstrom has had a superlative season. The former first round pick has been the team’s most reliable lineman and one of the better linemen in the league per just about any metric or source you choose, with Pro Football Focus naming him the best guard in the NFL this year.

All of that excellent play has given Lindstrom his fair share of recognition from the fanbase and analysts, and now it has earned him his first Pro Bowl nod.

Just 25 years old, Lindstrom has steadily improved each year in the league and will go down as one of Thomas Dimitroff’s best selections on the line by a wide margin. He has been a tremendous force for good for one of the most effective run-blocking lines in football, as well as one of Atlanta’s few reliable linemen in pass protection. On the year, he’s allowed just two sacks and has been penalized a single time, both team-best marks for full-time starters. You won’t find many guards in the NFL—and this year, you probably won’t find any—who are as good, disciplined, and young as Lindstrom.

That’s a long-winded way of saying that Lindstrom deserves the honor. He’s heading for a long-term extension with the Falcons soon enough, and hopefully the excellence Lindstrom has shown over the past couple of seasons is just his normal level of play for the next several seasons.