Continuing a series that debuted last season, UGASports highlights the top NFL performances by former Georgia players for the week entering the Monday night game. With our most outstanding performer for the week—or the Top Dawg—revealed towards the end, we spotlight the top NFL performances by Bulldogs for October 10 through October 13 and preview those participating in tonight’s Monday night game.

Although his performance came in a 32-13 Las Vegas loss to Pittsburgh, rookie Bowers continued to prove why he’s already one of the top tight ends in the league. In defeat, he had a game-high nine receptions (second-most for either team was five receptions) for 71 yards (second-most for either team was 37 receiving yards). Negated by a holding call, Bowers’ best catch was a turnaround, one-handed grab in the third quarter reminiscent of his playing days at Georgia. Currently, he ranks first among tight ends and third in the entire league in receptions this season with 37.

In Chicago’s 35-16 win over Jacksonville in London, Swift had his third top performance in a row after a trio of tough outings to start the season. Against the Jaguars, the former Georgia running back rushed for 91 yards on 17 carries and one touchdown and also made four receptions for 28 yards. After averaging 38.0 combined rushing + receiving yards and 1.8 yards per carry through Chicago’s first three games this season, Swift has averaged 134.7 yards and 4.8 yards per carry in the Bears’ last three contests.

Although resulting in a 17-7 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, Ojulari had an electric defensive performance at outside linebacker for the New York Giants. Starting for the first time this season, while seeing the most action he’s seen all year (and often lined up opposite of former Georgia offensive tackle Amarius Mims), he totaled four tackles, including two second-quarter sacks of Cincinnati quarterback Joe Burrow. For Ojulari, who now has 19 career sacks in 41 games in the league, it was his fourth NFL game with two sacks or more.

In Philadelphia’s 20-16 win over the Cleveland Browns, the five former Georgia players who are members of the Eagles’ defense all made plays in a winning effort. In helping limit the Browns to 244 yards of total offense, linebacker Nakobe Dean made a game-high 12 tackles, linebacker Nolan Smith had three tackles, including a sack, and cornerback Kelee Ringo made two tackles. The starting defensive tackles, Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter, had another strong showing. Davis made three tackles, including one for loss, while Carter had a sack and totaled a game-high three quarterback hurries.

Our Top Dawg for Week 6 in the NFL goes to Smith for his performance at strong safety in Tampa Bay’s 51-27 win at New Orleans. Coming off the bench (although appearing for 60% of the defensive snaps), the rookie defensive back totaled five tackles, including three solo, two passes defended, one quarterback hurry, one forced fumble, and made his first career interception in the league. Ironically, Smith’s intercepted quarterback Spencer Rattler—whom he intercepted last season in mid-September when Smith was at Georgia and Rattler at South Carolina. For this season, and despite starting just two games, Smith is fourth on the team with 33 tackles and leads the Bucs with two forced fumbles.

Worthy of note, former Georgia players continued to spearhead the Green Bay defense in the Packers’ 34-13 win yesterday over Arizona. Linebacker Quay Walker and safety Javon Bullard were the team’s top two tacklers with 11 and seven tackles, respectively.

Finally, we wanted to give a special mention to big Ben Cleveland in the Baltimore Ravens’ 30-23 win over Washington. In his fifth season in the league and with Baltimore, Cleveland had played only sparingly, appearing for just four offensive snaps at offensive guard through five-and-a-half games this year. Nevertheless, for only the second time during his NFL career, Cleveland appeared on Baltimore’s FG/XP block team yesterday for a field-goal try by the Commanders just before halftime. The 6-foot-6, 360-pound giant promptly blocked the kick—and then celebrated in style.

Kicking off at 8:15 pm ET, the lone Monday night game tonight pits the 3-2 Buffalo Bills at the 2-3 New York Jets, where visiting Buffalo is a 1-point favorite. Whereas the Jets currently have no former Georgia players on their roster, the Bills have three Bulldogs: starting running back James Cook, No. 3 center Sedrick Van Pran-Granger, and rookie defensive tackle Zion Logue (just picked up and currently not listed on depth chart).