Continuing our new series, UGASports highlights the top NFL performances by former Georgia players for the final week of the league’s regular season (January 6 and January 7).

A few teams were resting standout players for playoff purposes. Still, several Bulldogs showed out in Week 18. We reveal their performances below, including our most outstanding performer for the week—or the Top Dawg—toward the end.

In a 13-12 win by the Kansas City Chiefs on the road at the Los Angeles Chargers, Mecole Hardman “remind(ed) the people I can still play the game a little bit,” according to the five-year veteran wideout from Georgia. Starting for only the second time this season, Hardman played all 58 of Kansas City’s offensive snaps and caught a team-high six passes for 77 yards. It marked his highest receiving output in a single game since Week 9 of the 2022 season. It’ll be interesting to see where Hardman fits in Kansas City’s offensive game plan for the playoffs. The Chiefs host the Miami Dolphins this Saturday.

Making the first start in his three-year NFL career, defensive end Malik Herring was one of Kansas City’s defensive standouts in its 13-12 win over Los Angeles. Playing 55 defensive snaps (26 were the most he had played entering the game), Herring registered a career-high five tackles, a sack, a forced fumble, and a pass defended in helping keep the Chargers from crossing the goal line.

Defensive end Azeez Ojulari concluded what had been a shortened and disappointing third year in the league with a sound defensive performance yesterday in the New York Giants’ 27-10 win over the Philadelphia Eagles. Seeing 38 defensive snaps, Ojulari totaled a season-high four tackles, including a season-high two sacks in the victory. He also recovered a fourth-quarter fumble by the Eagles.

Inside linebacker Quay Walker led a defensive effort that yielded only 192 total yards in the Green Bay Packers’ 17-9 playoff-clinching win over the Chicago Bears. Walker led the Packers with nine tackles, including a third-quarter sack of quarterback Justin Fields. Following the game, Walker seemed to throw some shade on Fields’ throwing ability.

For his offensive performance yesterday in the Las Vegas Raiders’ 27-14 win over the Denver Broncos, Zamir White is the Top Dawg for Week 18. White rushed a career-high 25 times for 112 yards and caught a pass for a nine-yard gain. After White had rushed for only 124 yards on 37 carries (3.4 avg.) in his first nearly two years in the league, he rushed for 397 yards on 84 carries (4.7 avg.) in the Raiders’ last four games—all starts by White—of this season. In the process, the former Georgia running back became the first player in the Raiders’ long and storied history to rush for 100-plus yards in two of their first four career starts.

For what it’s worth, White was the 13th different Top Dawg recognized by us this season. James Cook led the way by being named the Top Dawg three times. George Pickens and Matthew Stafford were each named twice. Like White, D’Andre Swift, Roquan Smith, Mecole Hardman, Nakobe Dean, Broderick Jones, Isaiah McKenzie, Leonard Floyd, Quay Walker, and Travon Walker were each recognized on one occasion.

Finally, we’d like to recognize the four former Georgia players named to the Pro Bowl: running backs James Cook and D’Andre Swift, quarterback Matthew Stafford, and linebacker Roquan Smith. For Stafford and Smith, it’s their second Pro Bowl selection, while, for Cook and Swift, it’s their first.

We did some research and discovered that this will be just the 10th Pro Bowl (the game started with the 1938 season) featuring four or more former Georgia players. The four players being featured are the most Bulldogs in the Pro Bowl since there were five in 2017 (Geno Atkins, A.J. Green, Thomas Davis, Todd Gurley, and Reshad Jones). The most former Georgia players to make a Pro Bowl roster has been six—on three occasions: the 2015 season (Atkins, Green, Davis, Gurley, Jones, and Justin Houston), 2012 (Atkins, Green, Houston, Champ Bailey, Tim Jennings, and Blair Walsh), and 1969 (Fran Tarkenton, Len Hauss, Bill Stanfill, Bob Etter, Dave Lloyd, and Bobby Walden).