List Season Can Mean Only One Thing: Slighting Bears
It's the time of the dead time of the offseason when lists become most popular or unpopular depending on the list.
Call it List Season.
The latest list out is the CBS Sports list of top 100 NFL players and to be certain this is a very elite list.
A top 100 player is difficult to come by and CBS genuflected properly at the Khalil Mack alter on this one.
Mack made it to No. 9 on the list even after an off year by his standards with 8 1/2 sacks, his first time out of double digits since his rookie year in Oakland.
He did come in one spot behind Arizona's Chandler Jones, a player the Bears should have had if former Bears GM Phil Emery didn't decide Shea McClellin would be his version of Mitchell Trubisky. He just fell in love with that guy from Chicken Dinner Road out in Idaho and took him 19th overall, two spots before Jones. Eight years and 96 sacks later, Jones is coming off a season when he forced eight fumbles and McClellin and his 8 1/2 career sacks have been out of football since the end of 2016.
Mack did come in one spot ahead of Aaron Rodgers and two ahead of Drew Brees, although at their ages sliding is to be expected.
The problem with this list for the Bears is Mack is alone on it. This does not speak well for Ryan Pace's selecting.
They had an auxiliary list at the bottom, "just missed."
Safety Eddie Jackson and wide receiver Allen Robinson received nods there.
Eddie Jackson received a $58.4 million deal as the NFL's highest paid safety and didn't rank as high as the 49ers' Jimmie Ward, who is now 13th highest after getting a new deal. Jackson's statistics are so much better than Ward's in every way, it's not even worth talking about. He had as many interceptions last year as Ward has had for his career.
And Robinson has received nothing but short shrift since he came to Chicago and even after he caught a career-high 98 passes and piled this up with Mitchell Trubisky throwing the ball, he couldn't finish ahead of Raiders tight end Darren Waller, who had 90 catches last year and came in with 18 for his career. Waller was ranked 90th.
Cooper Kupp also made the list after catching four fewer passes than Robinson, and Stefon Diggs made it at 91. That's why the Viking let him leave.
Somehow Cardinals cornerback Patrick Peterson was 75th, proving Prisco must have been stuck in his hot tub time machine or something. Peterson has been on the side of the milk carton for a while now and he's 75th?
Bucs center Ryan Jensen made it onto the list at 87, showing that it just matters who is putting their hands down underneath you more than what you do on the field.
Jaguars rookie linebacker Josh Allen made it onto the list after a 10 1/2-sack rookie season.
The list goes on and on with players of little accomplishment or players who haven't been heard from in years while the Bears are given their usual cold shoulder from another expert.
Twitter: BearDigest @BearsOnMaven
