With two weeks remaining in the voting, New York Giants safety Logan Ryan leads all NFC Free safeties in the latest voting for the 2021 Pro Bowl.
Ryan, signed as free agent for one year at $5.05 million right before the season, was not originally in the Giants’ plans but several events (Xavier McKinney’s injury, Sam Beal’s opt-out and DeAndre Baker’s legal issues) left the team short in the secondary causing them to turn to the 29-year-old veteran.
It is was one of the wisest move they’ve made in years. Ryan has been a huge reason the Giants defense has made a resurgence. He is second on the team in tackles (65 total) and passes defensed (8) and leads the club with three forced fumbles.
Ryan also leads NFL defensive backs with seven forced fumbles since the start of the 2019 season.
The New Jersey native is happy to be a Giant and they are pleased to have him. He has become a leader in his short time here with Big Blue.
“I’m Jersey made, it’s been a blessing for me to be here,” Ryan said after the Giants’ 19-17 victory over Cincinnati last Sunday. “A lot of things had to happen for me personally in free agency for this situation to come up. As we know, it’s been an extremely weird year, but I always trust the process, trust where I’m at, I feel like I’m in the right place at the right time. Free agency, the question is going to come up time and time again, but we don’t even know the salary cap for next year. I have 30-something days left in this regular season and I’ve made the postseason a lot in my career, and it’s one game at a time for me.
“I told these guys before the [Bengals] game that winning is a mentality, you have to wake up like a winner, move like a winner, practice like a winner. We’re starting to move like winners, play like winners, starting to believe that we can win each and every game. I think that takes time; it has to be developed. I think we’re developing it for sure, I’m proud of the group and I’m proud of the win today.”
The 2021 Pro Bowl game will not be played due to COVID-19 concerns. The game was originally scheduled for January 31 at Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada — home of the Las Vegas Raiders — but are replacing it with an alternative week-long virtual event featuring the Pro Bowl rosters being played on the popular video game, Madden NFL 21.
Fan voting for the 2021 Pro Bowl presented by Verizon will continue online and on web-enabled mobile phones at NFL.com/ProBowlVote until Thursday, December 17.
Through the end of the voting period on December 17, fans will also be able to vote directly on Twitter. To cast such a vote, fans should tweet the first and last name of the player, the player’s official Twitter handle, or a hashtag including the player’s first and last name. All three of these methods must include the hashtag: #ProBowlVote. Voting via Twitter is in addition to the online ballot at NFL.com/ProBowlVote, which will be available throughout the entire voting period.
Roster selections are determined by the consensus votes of fans, players and coaches. Each group’s vote counts one-third toward determining the 88 All-Star players. NFL players and coaches will cast their votes on Friday, December 18.
The NFL is the only sports league that combines voting by fans, coaches and players to determine its All-Star teams. It was also the first professional sports league to offer online all-star voting in 1995. The roster reveal will be aired on NFL Network in late December.
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