The Cincinnati Bengals have four players on the final list of top 101 players from the 2022 NFL season over at Pro Football Focus.
The names won’t shock either — though some of the omissions might.
Quarterback Joe Burrow lands third overall out of the 101 players, with Sam Monson writing the following:
“Cincinnati overhauled its offensive line to make Burrow’s life easier, but by playoff time, injuries meant the Bengals were right back where they started. Nonetheless, Burrow continued to look excellent, as he came up just short of completing four-straight wins against Mahomes and the Chiefs in the AFC title game.”
Burrow lands behind only Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Chiefs defender Chris Jones overall.
Ja’Marr Chase sits 39th overall, with the writeup mentioning that his production didn’t slow and he still put up huge numbers despite only playing in 12 games.
Two spots below Chase at No. 41 is elite defensive lineman DJ Reader:
“Few players put together the kind of highs that Reader did this season, and injury prevented him from having one of the very best seasons in the entire league. He produced 32 pressures from 310 pass-rushing snaps and was a brick wall against the run.”
Reader’s teammate Trey Hendrickson rounds out the list of Bengals at No. 56:
“Hendrickson continues to go from strength to strength in the NFL. He is on a streak of three consecutive career years, adding to last season’s 86.9 PFF pass-rushing grade with an 87.7 mark this season on the back of 74 pressures and 24 defensive stops.”
It’s a little surprising to see wideout Tee Higgins miss the list. But it’s nice to see two very underappreciated defensive linemen get a nod on a leaguewide ranking like this.
Overall, when a team rosters four players on a top 101 players list — with the most important position of all sitting in the top three — that team sits in a pretty good spot for the long-term.
