The Packers have a Pro Bowler after all with Kenny Clark's addition
It was a charming badge of honor that the Packers made a late-season run to the divisional round of the NFC playoffs without a single Pro Bowler on the roster.
It just doesn't happen to be true anymore.
Defensive lineman Kenny Clark was named Tuesday to the Pro Bowl Games, appointed as a replacement for San Francisco 49ers lineman Javon Hargrave. Players on teams headed for the Super Bowl do not participate in the Pro Bowl festivities.
Now a three-time Pro Bowl selection (2019, 2021), Clark has established himself as one of the greatest at his position in Packers history. Only Pro Football Hall of Famer Henry Jordan has made more Pro Bowls as a defensive tackle in a Packers uniform, with four.
Clark started all 19 games in 2023 and recorded 7½ sacks for a new career best, plus a team-leading nine tackles for loss and two forced fumbles.
This is the second year of an alternate Pro Bowl format that eschews an actual game in favor of a series of skills competitions. Those events, which will be held in Orlando, Florida, will air Thursday, Feb. 1, on ESPN, with a series of 7-on-7 games airing Sunday on ESPN and ABC.
Elgton Jenkins and Jaire Alexander represented the Packers at last year's showcase.
Three Wisconsinites (Kevin Zeitler, Jake Ferguson, Nick Bellore) named as roster replacements
Baltimore offensive guard Kevin Zeitler, a graduate of Wisconsin Lutheran High School, would surely rather be in the Super Bowl, but his consolation prize is his first Pro Bowl selection.
The 12-year veteran and University of Wisconsin alumnus will serve as the replacement for Chiefs lineman Joe Thuney, whose team eliminated Zeitler's Ravens in the AFC championship game over the weekend.
Zeitler, according to Pro Football Focus, allowed only two sacks and 19 pressures this season, earning the second-highest pass blocking grade among guards from the site. He's missed just 11 games over his 12-season career and just four over his past three years with the Ravens. He's previously spent time with the Bengals, Browns and Giants.
Jake Ferguson, who had a breakout season at tight end for the Dallas Cowboys, was also named to the Pro Bowl in his second NFL season. He takes the place of 49ers tight end George Kittle.
Ferguson had 71 catches for 761 yards and five touchdowns in the regular season. He saved his best for the playoffs, with career bests in catches (10), receiving yards (93) and touchdowns (3), but the Packers defeated the Cowboys, 48-32.
Ferguson attended Madison Memorial High School and Wisconsin and, of course, is the grandson of former UW head coach and athletics director Barry Alvarez.
Bellore, an alumnus of Whitefish Bay High School, has quietly had an outstanding NFL career as a special teamer. The 13-year veteran currently with Seattle is now a two-time Pro Bowler.
It'll be the first time Bellore actually gets to participate in Pro Bowl festivities; he made the cut after the 2020 season when the pandemic precluded anything beyond simply getting named to a list. Bellore was named as a replacement for injured Lions special teamer Jalen Reeves-Maybin.
The 34-year-old Bellore, an alumnus of Central Michigan, has been with Seattle since 2019 and previously played for Detroit, San Francisco and the New York Jets.
The trio join previously selected Miami Dolphins fullback Alec Ingold, who attended Bay Port High School in Green Bay and the University of Wisconsin, as Pro Bowlers hailing from Wisconsin.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Packers' Kenny Clark, three Wisconsin natives added to Pro Bowl
