Dalvin Cook, Danielle Hunter Ranked in Top 40 by NFL Players

The NFL Top 100 is an annual rankings show on NFL Network that unveils the league's 100 best players, as voted on by current players. Nos. 100 to 71 were revealed on Sunday, 70 to 41 on Monday, and 40 to 11 on Tuesday. This is the tenth year the league has done this, and it's always interesting – and sometimes surprising – to see who the players think are the NFL's best.

The Vikings already had three players – Kirk Cousins, Harrison Smith, and Eric Kendricks – in the 100-41 range. On Tuesday, two of their teammates joined them by cracking the top 40, giving the Vikings five total players in the top 100.

Danielle Hunter: No. 40

2019 ranking: No. 57

After a second consecutive season with 14.5 sacks, Hunter climbs 17 spots in this year's rankings. That's a step in the right direction, but he's still too low. In my opinion, Hunter is the best player on the Vikings' roster and a top-three edge rusher in the league. The players, however, have Hunter as merely the eighth-best edge rusher. Here are all of the DEs and OLBs in the top 40, along with their sacks over the past two years:

No. 40: Danielle Hunter (29 sacks)
No. 34: Joey Bosa (17)
No. 32: Shaq Barrett (22.5)
No. 26: Von Miller (22.5)
No. 25: TJ Watt (27.5)
No. 23: Cam Jordan (27.5)
No. 19: Khalil Mack (21)
No. 17: Nick Bosa (9 – rookie)
No. 15: Chandler Jones (32)

Those numbers suggest Hunter should be higher. He's a superhuman athlete who is virtually unblockable and has posted dominant numbers in just about every statistic over the past couple years. Oh, and he's still only 25. If Hunter continues ascending, we should see him be even higher on this list next year.

Video segment:

No. 21: Dalvin Cook

2019 ranking: N/A

This is a ton of respect for Cook from his fellow players. They ranked the Vikings star as the third-best running back in the league, trailing only Derrick Henry and Christian McCaffrey. He's ahead of Ezekiel Elliott (24), Saquon Barkley (31), Aaron Jones (33), and Nick Chubb (36). If Cook stays healthy, I fully expect him to validate this ranking next season. He had a huge breakout year in 2019, finishing second to McCaffrey in yards from scrimmage per game. Cook has everything you want in a running back and is a perfect schematic fit for the Vikings offense.

Now we'll have to see if he gets paid.

Video segment:

Complete list of Vikings in the NFL Top 100:

Omitted: Anthony Harris, Adam Thielen, Brian O'Neill
No. 83: Eric Kendricks
No. 64: Harrison Smith
No. 58: Kirk Cousins
No. 40: Danielle Hunter
No. 21: Dalvin Cook

Check out all of our Vikings 2020 season preview content right here.

Join the conversation at InsideTheVikings by clicking the follow button in the upper right-hand corner of this page (mobile users, tap the bell icon – you may have to click ‘News’ first), and follow @WillRagatz on Twitter.