The 2026 NFL season is a few months away, and the anticipation for week one is at an extremely high level.
As the NFL Network has done their player consensus Top 100 ranking each year, Windy City Gridiron’s staff has put together a roundtable over the last few seasons of the best players in the NFC North. With six contributors pitching in for this year’s roundtable, there was a strong diversity of opinions that provided for some entertaining rankings.
Before we get started, let’s set up the ground
rules. Each WCG participant was asked to send their top 32 players in the NFC North. A player’s ranking determined how many points they would receive (32 points for first, 31 points for second, etc.), and the total points were added up to create the rankings.
Note: Tiebreakers will be broken by whichever player appeared on more ballots. If that total is the same, then the tiebreaker will go to whichever player received the highest ranking on an individual ballot. If that scenario also does not result in a clear winner, ballot organizer Jacob Infante will break the tie.
The rankings thus far
41. Vikings WR Jauan Jennings
42. Bears RB D’Andre Swift
43. Packers WR Christian Watson
44. Packers DT Javon Hargrave
45. Vikings G Will Fries
46. Lions CB D.J. Reed Jr.
47. Packers DT Devonte Wyatt
48. Lions G Tate Ratledge
49. Packers LB Zaire Franklin
50. Vikings CB James Pierre
40. Lions OT Blake Miller
Highest Ranking: 27 (Gooch)
Last Year’s Ranking: N/A (not in NFL yet)
Coming into the NFL, it’s easy to project Blake Miller as having a high floor at the professional level. He’s a gifted athlete with a 9.97 Relative Athletic Score, he was a four-year starter at Clemson, and he won at the point of attack predominantly with his power, nasty demeanor, and superior length. With Penei Sewell moving to left tackle, he and Miller have the potential to give the Lions one of the best tackle duos in the league in due time.
39. Lions DT Alim McNeill
Highest Ranking: 29 (Infante)
Last Year’s Ranking: No. 33
Alim McNeill drops a little bit in these rankings, and injuries play a big role in why; he’s missed a combined 14 games over his last three seasons. That said, he’s still been quite good when healthy, having graded as a top-20 defensive tackle in the NFL by PFSN DT Impact Scoring in both 2024 and 2025. Among the 134 defensive tackles with 100 run-defense snaps or more last year, McNeill tied for 13th with an average depth per tackle of 1.4 yards in run support.
38. Vikings LB Blake Cashman
Highest Ranking: 25 (Gooch)
Last Year’s Ranking: N/A
An impact performer in 2024 as a free-agent singing for the Vikings, Blake Cashman built on that with arguably the best year of his NFL career in 2025. Even missing four games, he still filled up the stat sheet to the tune of 144 tackles and 2.0 sacks. Perhaps most impressive is that he only missed 5.3% of his tackle attempts last season. Among the top 20 finishers in tacklers across the league, Cashman’s missed tackle percentage is the third-best. That’s a massive sample size of tackles with not a lot of mistakes.
37. Packers WR Jayden Reed
Highest Ranking: 29 (Gooch)
Last Year’s Ranking: No. 40
Expectations were high for Jayden Reed going into 2025, but he suffered a fractured collarbone in Week 2 that kept him out of action for most of the year. He played in seven games last season, with five of them coming post-injury, and his career-low 29.6 receiving yards per game indicate it was a tough ramp-up period for him to get touches in a deep Packers receiving room. With the likes of Romeo Doubs and Dontayvion Wicks no longer on the team, though, now is the time for Reed to not only bounce back to his 2023 and 2024 level of play, but perhaps surpass it.
36. Bears S Dillon Thieneman
Highest Ranking: 22 (Gooch)
Last Year’s Ranking: N/A (not in NFL yet)
Despite being the third NFC North made in the 2026 NFL Draft, Dillon Thieneman is the highest-rated rookie on this list. I tend to agree: he was ranked No. 19 overall on my board, the aforementioned Miller came in at No. 30, and Vikings defensive tackle Caleb Banks finished at No. 58 due to his injury history. Thieneman is a versatile safety who had two interceptions, only missed 8.3% of his tackle attempts in 2025, and allowed just 2.3 yards after catch all year. He’s also the firm player to appear on multiple ballots, ranking 22nd on Donald Gooch’s list and 32nd on my own. His football IQ, ball skills, and athleticism should make him a big addition to the Bears’ secondary.
35. Vikings TE T.J. Hockenson
Highest Ranking: 21 (Gooch)
Last Year’s Ranking: No. 23
The last two seasons have pointed to potential regression for T.J. Hockenson. His 29.2 receiving yards per game in 2025 marked the lowest average of his seven seasons in the NFL. He was still a reliable target for the Vikings, dropping only four of his targets and producing a 110.8 passer rating when targeted. Practically every weapon in Minnesota saw their production drop last year because of bad quarterback play; we’ll see if that turns around for Hockenson with Kyler Murray now expected to start.
34. Bears WR Rome Odunze
Highest Ranking: 23 (Orenchuk)
Last Year’s Ranking: No. 45
Rome Odunze saw improvement in a variety of areas in his second year with the Bears, jumping from 3 touchdowns in 2024 to 6 touchdowns in 2025, despite playing in five fewer games. He averaged 55.1 yards per game, an upgrade over his 43.2 average as a rookie. He did that while reportedly playing hurt for much of the season, and aggravation of his foot injury forced him to miss the final five games of the year. He has room for improvement; he had a drop rate of 9.4%, and he only came down with 35.0% of his contested catch targets. That said, Odunze started to show more of that top-10 pick potential last year before he got hurt.
33. Bears WR Luther Burden III
Highest Ranking: 26 (Baugher)
Last Year’s Ranking: N/A
When Odunze went down during that aforementioned stretch, it was Luther Burden III who picked things up more than any other wide receiver on the team. His 481 receiving yards from Week 10 until the end of the regular season had him at a 1,022-yard pace. Though his volume wasn’t as high as other rookie weapons in 2025, Burden perhaps made the most of his targets better than everyone else. His comfort with Ben Johnson’s route concepts showed as the year progressed, which combined with his high-level athleticism and elite YAC ability, could make him the Bears’ leading receiver in 2026.
32. Bears G Jonah Jackson
Highest Ranking: 20 (Wiltfong)
Last Year’s Ranking: N/A
There was concern about Jonah Jackson’s ability to bounce back to old form after missing most of 2024 due to injury and eventually getting benched by the Rams in his only season with the team. In Chicago, though, he was able to do exactly that. He ranked No. 22 among 74 qualified guards in PFSN OL Impact Scoring, which translates roughly to an above-average starter. Returning to Johnson’s offense seemed to help Jackson gain his mojo back, as he was hardly noticeable at all when watching games: the best trait for an interior offensive lineman to have.
31. Vikings WR Jordan Addison
Highest Ranking: 18 (Gooch)
Last Year’s Ranking: No. 24
Given his health and off-the-field concerns, there are questions around Jordan Addison’s future with the Vikings. There are very few questions about his play, however, as he’s tallied 2,396 receiving yards in his first three seasons with a 17-game career pace of 885 yards per season. He remained productive despite the lackluster quarterback play around him, though his drop rate did rise to 14.3%. As previously mentioned with Hockenson, Addison saw a slight dip in his year-end statistics, as did another notable Minnesota weapon who will appear later on this list. But he was still a capable separator and an athletic weapon who has been able to make big plays throughout his NFL career.
