Two San Francisco 49ers players, fullback Kyle Juszczyk and linebacker Mark Nzeocha, were top NFC vote-getters among their positions in the fan vote portion of the Pro Bowl selection process. Nzeocha is actually the leader among special teams players, not linebackers.
Two other 49ers players, tight end George Kittle and defensive tackle DeForest Buckner, landed in the top three while Robbie Gould finished fourth among kickers, according to NBC Sports Bay Area.
#49ers in the top-10 of latest Pro Bowl fan voting, through Dec. 13: 1st-FB Kyle Juszczyk
— Matt Maiocco (@MaioccoNBCS) December 14, 2018
1st-ST Mark Nzeocha
3rd-TE George Kittle
3rd-DT DeForest Buckner
4th-K Robbie Gould
(Fans, players, coaches all count one-third in the process.)
As Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area points out in the above tweet, the fan-vote portion accounts for one-third of the selection process with the remaining two-thirds being split evenly between NFL players and coaches.
Fan voting ended on Thursday with the final selections being announced on NFL Network on December 18 at 5 p.m. PT.
Juszczyk, who ended with 564,873 fan votes, is likely headed toward his third-straight Pro Bowl selection. He is in his second season with San Francisco. The 49ers made Juszczyk the highest paid fullback in the league upon signing him to a four-year deal worth up to $21 million last year.
Nzeocha, who ended with 183,150 fan votes, has benefitted from his wild popularity in Germany. While the linebacker played college football at Wyoming, he is from Neusitz, Germany. The 49ers signed Nzeocha off the Dallas Cowboys' practice squad on September 25, 2017. He was re-signed on January 26.
"Mark's done a real good job for us," head coach Kyle Shanahan said of Nzeocha on December 7. "He's done a really good job on special teams. He started out this year as our starting SAM linebacker and then when we had all of our backers healthy, he went back to a prominent special teams role when Malcolm (Smith) was at the SAM. Now that Malcolm is playing inside, we're back to using him on the outside backer.
"Last year he played inside backer for us. He took a huge step forward this year changing his position. We thought it was a much better spot for him. Mark runs and hits, and usually, if you run and hit, you're a pretty good special teams player."
The Pro Bowl will be played on January 27, 2019, at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida.
