Happy New Year!

Continuing our new series for this season, UGASports highlights the top NFL performances by former Georgia players for the week (December 28 through December 31). Our most outstanding performer for the week—or the Top Dawg—is revealed towards the end, along with a couple of honorable mentions.

Former Georgia linebacker Quay Walker helped the Green Bay Packers last night move one step closer to the playoffs. In the Packers’ 33-10 win over the Minnesota Vikings, Walker played all 53 of his team’s defensive snaps, and totaled six tackles—the second-most on his squad—including a second-quarter sack for a 10-yard loss. Despite missing a few games this season because of injury, Walker leads the Packers with 109 total tackles.

Following an all-time receiving performance in Week 16, George Pickens continued his success yesterday in a 30-23 road win by the Pittsburgh Steelers over the Seattle Seahawks. Helping his team remain in the playoff hunt, Pickens made seven receptions for 131 yards, including a leaping grab for a long of 37 yards. He joined former Georgia player Hines Ward and Antonio Brown (five times) as the only Steeler players in history to have 130-plus receiving yards in back-to-back games. After gaining just 314 receiving yards in a stretch of eight games from Weeks 8 through 15, Pickens totaled 322 in his last two games.

In the Los Angeles Rams’ 26-25 victory on the road against the New York Giants, 15-year veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford completed 24 of 34 passes for 317 yards and a touchdown. For Stafford, it was his fifth 300-yard passing performance this season. For the Rams, it was their sixth win in seven games as they clinched a spot in the playoffs after missing the postseason a year ago.

Linebacker Roquan Smith was one of the top defensive performers in the Baltimore Ravens’ 56-19 one-sided win over the Miami Dolphins. In the victory, Smith totaled seven tackles and two passes defended, including a one-handed interception he showed extraordinary effort returning for 30 yards. For the six-year veteran, the interception was his first this season and the ninth of his career.

Although he’s been featured in this piece on multiple occasions this season, Travon Walker of the Jacksonville Jaguars has been named the Top Dawg for the first time. In the Jaguars’ 26-0 shutout win over the Carolina Panthers, Walker was instrumental in the Panthers’ being limited to 124 total yards. From his SAM linebacker position, he registered six tackles, three quarterback pressures, and a career-high two sacks. It certainly wasn’t the first time Walker had sacked Carolina quarterback Bryce Young. If you remember, on the final possession of the 2022 CFP Championship Game, Walker sacked Young when the latter was at Alabama. After totaling just 3.5 sacks a year ago as a rookie, Walker currently has nine sacks with one more game remaining in the regular season.

There is no Monday Night game tonight. Therefore, we’ll conclude by spotlighting a couple of obscure, but notable performances made by Bulldogs in the offensive tranches: Ben Cleveland and Broderick Jones.

Starting at right guard in the Ravens’ 56-19 win over the Dolphins, Cleveland helped pave the way for Baltimore to score eight touchdowns while gaining nearly 500 yards of total offense. He played all 57 of his team’s offensive snaps in the victory after seeing only 48 snaps in 14 games for the season. It was Cleveland’s first start since the final week of last season.

As a starting offensive tackle as a mere rookie, Jones has had mixed results this season for Pittsburgh, especially in pass protection. However, playing all 72 of his team’s offensive snaps yesterday, he appeared dominant at times during the Steelers’ 30-23 win over the Seahawks. Check out No. 77!