Pro Bowl voting opened began on Thanksgiving, and the New Orleans Saints only have one player in the top-10 at their position. It's not Demario Davis or Chris Olave. Those would be obvious choices. Surprisingly, it's Juwan Johnson.
Johnson has the 10th most votes among all tight ends, and that ranking rises to sixth when honing in on NFC tight ends. The only tight ends ahead of him in the NFC are Trey McBride, Jake Ferguson, George Kittle, Colston Loveland and Sam LaPorta. With LaPorta out for the season, that essentially puts Johnson at fifth.
What makes this even more interesting is these rankings are based on fan voting. I couldn't imagine other fanbases being dialed in enough to vote for Johnson. Maybe this is a contingent of happy fantasy owners, but Saints fans being the driving cause of Johnson's position feels doubtful.
Juwan Johnson being the only Saints Pro Bowler would feel... weird
Johnson is far from the most popular player amongst Saints fans. He has shown flashes, but he had never consistently put it together. Then, the Saints gave him a new contract. There's nothing that makes a fan base harbor resentment more than feeling like a player was overpaid.
Things got even worse to start the season when he dropped a potentially game winning touchdown from Spencer Rattler in the season opener. You couldn't tell fans three months later that Johnson would even be in the conversation of being a Pro Bowler.
While he hasn't had any highs that would offset that massive low to start the season, Johnson's numbers are better than most would think. He's been a much bigger part of the offense and the result is career highs in receiving yards and catches with five games left remaining on the year.
In comparison to his peers, Johnson is second to only Trey McBride in receiving yards among NFC tight ends. His catches rank fourth among the same crowd. The players above him are McBride, Jake Ferguson and Kyle Pitts. McBride and Ferguson are two players who currently have more votes than Johnson.
Johnson still hasn't played at the level you'd want when thinking about a Pro Bowl caliber player. If you're going strictly from a statistical standpoint then there's a conversation for him to be in the conversation. It's just not a group you'd expect to see the Saints tight end be included in.