Chicago Bears fans were rightfully in a rage a couple months ago when the NFL released its annual Top 100 NFL Players rankings. This time for the year 2018. While nobody is saying the Bears should've dominated the lineup by any stretch, odds are they should've had at least one name somewhere on them. That did not happen. Chicago was shut out of the rankings while plenty of highly questionable names made the cut.
That's okay. The NFL Top 100 is a joke anyway, voted on by players. They aren't run by experts who do actual research. So when ESPN decided to do their own rankings, it was a genuine relief. Finally the Bears would get some proper recognition for having underrated talent on their roster. Except it turns out their paid experts are no different from the players.
For the second-straight time, Chicago was shut out of a top 100 rankings. While not quite as big of a joke as the NFL Network version, this one still had a number of head-scratchers. None more so than the first running back off the board.
Dalvin Cook ranks in Top 100 NFL Players over Jordan Howard
For whatever reason the rankers felt that Minnesota Vikings running back Dalvin Cook
belonged on the list over Jordan Howard. Let's review that for a moment. Cook has played one year in the NFL and he didn't even finish that season. He played four games. FOUR GAMES! He compiled 444 yards from scrimmage and scored four touchdowns. Solid production but also limited.
Somehow he made it over Howard who had over 1,100 yards rushing and didn't miss a game in 2017. Not only that, but he didn't have the benefit of playing in a quality offense surrounded by other Pro Bowl weapons like Cook who had Stefon Diggs, Adam Thielein, and Kyle Rudolph keeping defenses honest in the passing game.
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Oh yeah. That makes perfect sense. It's just further proof that a strict bias among the national media is focused on winning teams. Here's a stat for you. Of the 100 players listed, 67 of them came from teams that had a winning record last season. That's over two thirds of the best players in the NFL coming from just one third of the league's teams.
Meanwhile the Cleveland Browns, a team that went 0-16 had two players on the list. Something is seriously wrong with this picture. Team success and individual success are two different things. Simply plucking notable names from winning teams feels like a cop out and a smack in the face of many players who are better than some who did make it.
