Two Ex-Giants Leading Pro Bowl Voting at Their Respective Positions

No current Giants are among the top vote-getters for the Pro Bowl, but a couple of former players are.

Sep 15, 2019; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley (26) carries the ball as Buffalo Bills defensive end Jerry Hughes (55) is blocked by offensive guard Kevin Zeitler (70) during the first half at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images / Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

 It’s been one of the most historically bad seasons for the New York Giants as they eclipse the 100th year of their team’s storied franchise, but what’s making it tougher than the poor product in their stadium is seeing former players overachieve in their new arenas. 

While the Giants have had a hard time accomplishing almost anything on their own gridiron, they’ve spent the majority of the 2024 season on the receiving end of criticism and lighthearted jokes in light of the campaigns from several of their former players who have been shining in new opportunities and cities across the NFL. 

Perhaps the biggest story in an offseason full of them for New York was the long-coming breakup with former running back Saquon Barkley that was captured behind the scenes on the inaugural offseason version of Hard Knocks and saw the former No. 2 pick skip town to the division rival Philadelphia Eagles for more guaranteed money. 

The Giants also parted ways with their All-Pro safety Xavier McKinney, who signed a lucrative new deal with the Green Bay Packers that his previous employee was unwilling to contest and has followed it up with a league-leading interception number of seven that is five more than the entire Giants defense has as a unit in 13 games. 

In the months since their departures, these two stars, and several others who’ve left the Giants in recent seasons, have been tearing it up. They help their new teams strive for the game’s biggest prize while setting league-wide records, while New York sits back and watches their regime’s decisions arguably blow up in their faces amid another lost season.

To add insult to injury, the Giants will now be forced to witness a couple of their former offensive pieces contend for a lion’s share of votes from the football world for the upcoming Pro Bowl Games in Orlando this February. Among them are Barkley and former right guard Kevin Zeitler, who are among the NFL’s top vote getters at their respective positions. 

With two weeks of voting for the Super Bowl’s prelude in the books, Barkley is currently slated in second place overall with 82, 082 votes and is paired with Baltimore Ravens lead bull Derrick Henry for the two leading backs in the NFC and AFC conferences. 

Zeitler, who last played for the Giants in the 2021 season under the Joe Judge era, clocks in as the leading guard in the NFC and is partnered with Joe Thuney of the Kansas City Chiefs on the other side of the league. He is also one of two Lions offensive linemen earning a ton of voter recognition, with center Frank Ragnow on the list and four weeks left to go in the regular season.

It comes as no surprise that Barkley is one of the top candidates for what would become his third Pro Bowl selection in seven years. The Penn State product is in the process of building a career-high campaign with the Eagles and working towards achieving a new throne in running back royalty. 

Barkley leads the entire league in overall rushing production with 266 carries for 1,623 yards, 11 touchdowns, and an average of 124.8 yards per game, that is also the highest among all active skilled position players. 

Barkley and Henry, who is right behind him with 1,407 yards and 13 scores, have been rotating all year long from the top shelf in their big chase for history as their eyes are on breaking the single-season rushing record of 2,105 yards that has been held by Rams’ legend Eric Dickerson since 1984. 

The outing marks Barkley’s fourth season with over 1,000 yards rushing and he’s been doing it at an historic pace that even outmatches the 1,312 yards and 10 touchdowns he scored in his previous career-high season with the Giants back in 2022 that propelled them to their first postseason berth in six seasons at the time. 

He has eight games with over 100 yards on the ground, including the 176-yard and two-touchdown masterclass he put on New York in his first return to MetLife Stadium since signing with Philadelphia in Week 7.

Since then, Barkley has gashed three more teams with stylish plays and acrobatic performances, three of which have amassed over 150 rushing yards and one with over 300 yards from scrimmage. 

Meanwhile, after signing with the Lions during the summer after three seasons in Baltimore, Zeitler has turned himself into a respectable asset on Detroit’s offensive line that ranks 17th in PFF pass blocking grade. 

He has played in over 750 snaps at the right guard spot this season and has earned a 75.5 grade with four sacks and 13 total pressures allowed, his lowest mark in the last six years. 

Zeitler is also one of five Lions blockers with a pass-blocking score above 67.1 in the same span and has strengthened his skills to assist a front line that has kept opponents to just 17 sacks and 127 total pressures all season long. 

Those metrics have been a big reason why Detroit has been able to move the ball and score at will, both elements that have plagued the Giants offense in the years since his departure. 

In his two seasons with the Giants, the former 2012 first-round pick appeared in 1,994 snaps, most of which came from the starting right guard position with a few exception snaps at left tackle and left guard. He was one of the stalwart protectors for Daniel Jones in that time by being responsible for just five sacks and 46 total pressures. 

If there was one weakness in his game, it was his inclination to penalties, for which he had four or more in six different seasons, including the 2020 season. 

Other factors got in the way of keeping him around, as the Giants chose to revamp their offensive line at the tail end of the Joe Judge regime, and he was subsequently released in March 2021, just two years after being traded there by the Cleveland Browns. 

Barkley and Zeitler's early success in the Pro Bowl voting rolls stands as just another block added to the tower of regret and mismanagement that has weighed down the Giants organization in what feels like the waning weeks of the Schoen-Daboll duo. 

They’ve seemingly messed up on a bunch of their recent transactions and decisions to move on from valuable talent that was holding their roster together on Sundays and it’s been showing over and over again in various elements that those players helped maintain at the median with their experience and skillset.

It’s very possible that the Giants could see one of their former beloved stars reach the pinnacle of the sport in a few months or in the years to come. They are so far away from there that the chatter around them is unlikely to end so long as players like Barkley and Zeitler continue to outperform expectations. 

Final fan voting for the Pro Bowl is on December 23 and December 27 for coaches and players before the ultimate selections are announced for the latest rendition of the games on Sunday, February 2. 

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See Also

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• Giants Sign CB Divaad Wilson from Cardinals Practice Squad 

• Five Alarming Trends Established by the Giants This Season

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