ESPN's top 100 list is bare of Bears
Respect is earned, and the Chicago Bears have done little to earn it as the NFL's only team to suffer double-digit losing seasons in four consecutive years.
Nonetheless, ESPN's new feature predicting the NFL's top 100 players in 2018 is entirely bare of your beloved Bears, and although we're not necessarily surprised, we're compelled to point out that Jordan Howard and Akiem Hicks are more than worthy.
Ten running backs made the list, including three who have never played a full season and one whose next snap in the NFL will be his first. Dalvin Cook checked in at No. 10 among backs, coming off a torn ACL that halted his rookie campaign with the Vikings in Game Four.
Apparently the panel of experts who ranked and predicted these players based on "greatness this season" but not past performance or positional value don't envision Howard becoming Matt Nagy's new Kareem Hunt, the reigning rushing champ and former Nagy pupil who slotted sixth among backs. Hunt's rookie season was very similiar to Howard's, before the Bears runner went out and authored back-to-back 1,000-rushing yard efforts, the first player in franchise history to do so.
Hicks is perhaps more underrated around the league than Howard; he wasn't even a Pro Bowler last season despite his dominance as an often one-man wrecking crew up front on Vic Fangio's "D" in 2017. His game, unlike Howard's, also has no weaknesses, though we're on record as saying people won't be talking about Howard's well-documented receiving troubles nearly as much by the time this season ends.
Among ESPN's 22 defensive linemen in the rankings, less than half qualify as pure interior players like Hicks, but the one who jumps out at us as clearly not belonging ahead of him is Super Bowl champion Brandon Graham, who played 20 percent fewer of his team's defensive snaps and, although that's partially the byproduct of playing on the NFL's deepest front, wasn't as disruptive overall.
Like Hicks, Graham has never been to a Pro Bowl but plays a more glamorous position and obviously has a much higher profile.
Give the list - topped by Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady - a gander at espn.com and let us know what you think. We're pretty sure we already know.
• Arthur Arkush is the managing editor for Pro Football Weekly. For more on the NFL, visit profootballweekly.com and follow Arthur on Twitter @arthurarkush or @PFWeekly.