Today, the NFL will announce the AP Offensive and Defensive Rookie of the Year Award winners. 

The potential winners for each should be fairly clear. St. Louis Rams QB seems like a lock for the offensive ROY trophy while Lions DT Ndamukong Suh probably has it sewn up for the defensive prize. Bradford lost out to Suh yesterday for the Pepsi Rookie of the Year Award, one voted on by fans. 

Bradford and Suh stand out on the list of impressive rookie performances this season. Largely, that's due to the kind of rare, special talent each player brings to the field. It's fortunate that the AP ROY awards are broken up that way since both are deserving of recognition. 

But what about the other rookies in the far less visible positions, like offensive line? There's a good post over the New York Times' Fifth Down blog arguing that Steelers C Maurkice Pouncey was overlooked for the award. Maybe. He was definitely a good candidate for it. As was the Rams' rookie left tackle Rodger Saffold. 

Saffold wasn't perfect by any means, but it might be argued that he was the best player on a Rams offensive line that allowed just 34 sacks, the first time in more than a decade that the Rams allowed fewer than 40 sacks. Even more impressive is that total in light of how often they passed the ball; that's a sack rate of 5.6 percent, the 10th best mark in the league.