An alarming Chicago Bears trend made obvious by one top 100 list

It's always easy to take shots at top 100 player lists and Pete Prisco's for CBS Sports definitely invites the critics.

Prisco two years ago had Trevor Lawrence in his top 25, ranked eight spots ahead of Jalen Hurts in 23r overall. So this pretty much tells you everything you need to know.

That the Bears managed to get two players on this most recent top 100 list is noteworthy in so much as what it represents. Jaylon Johnson dropped from 34th in 2024, all the way to 71st for this year. Joe Thuney owns an annual spot on this team, too, and is 55th. Thuney must be getting better with age and when forced to play tackle as he moved up 31 spots after his final season with Kansas City.

The Bears have had greater representation on this list in recent years. Last season DJ Moore ranked 89th and Montez Sweat 73rd, when Johnson came in 34th, for what that's worth.

Justin Fields and Tremaine Edmunds have been on the list in recent years and GM Ryan Poles also brought in Kevin Byard and Keenan Allen, who had been on it more than once.

There's a problem here, however, and it has nothing to do with snubs or where they're ranked.

Poles has gone through four drafts now and not one single player he selected has ever appeared on this list.

Former GM Ryan Pace drafted Johnson and Fields. Give Poles credit for obtaining Sweat, Moore, Thuney and last year Allen, but each came through trades. The Bears had to give up something to get them.

When they signed Byard, he'd been through years with the Titans as a top player and then wastefully discarded by the Eagles. Poles recognized talent here.

What Poles has not done is draft a single player who developed under his coaches and made the list.

Even his predecessor, Pace, had running back Jordan Howard make the list for 2017 out of his second draft in 2016. Safety Adrian Amos made it in 2018 out of Pace's third draft, followed by Eddie Jackson in 2019 out of Pace's fourth draft.

Not that anyone's keeping score, but the Bears managed to draft and develop three players who made this top 100 list while Poles had no players drafted and developed for the list. Not that anyone's keeping score, but that's rather lopsided.

Drafting players and hiring coaches who can develop players actually are tasks associated with general managers.

Any GM can go out and find players in free agency if they have the cash, and usually free agents are flawed players or their previous team would retain them. Sometimes they're just too highly priced, too, but teams can almost always find ways to retain the top players they drafted but it's costly.

Trey Smith of the Chiefs was a good example this past year.

Pace definitely had his faults. Plunging the team into salary cap hell was one. They couldn't even retain Amos or a few other players who would have been ideal to keep because of his cap failures.

However, at least Pace found three players in the draft who someone deemed a top 100 guy by Year 4.

Poles has some making up to do, and also still needs a contract extension.

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