NEWSLETTER
Believe it or not, the Chicago Bears might have an offense boasting a few players worthy of your fantasy football team this season. Whodathunk?
Over at Pro Football Focus, Jeff Ratcliffe shares his top 200 fantasy rankings (for PPR leagues) and six Bears players have made the list. And for once, you won’t have to dive to the bottom of the rankings to find the most prominent offensive asset.
Indeed, a pair of Bears crack the top-50, led by wide receiver Allen Robinson – who is the highest-ranked Bears player coming in at No. 36 overall. Ratcliffe believes Chicago is an ideal situation to be a high-volume receiver because he slots in as Mitch Trubisky’s clear-cut No. 1 option in the passing game. No argument here. Robinson has been a fantasy-relevant player since his breakout 2015 season, in which he caught 80 passes for 1,400 yards, and 14 touchdowns. If Robinson garners as much attention from quarterback Mitch Trubisky in 2018 as he did from Blake Bortles in 2015, then watch out.
Speaking of Trubisky, he checks in at No. 139 overall and is Ratcliffe’s No. 21 fantasy quarterback. His ranking puts him ahead of Andy Dalton (141), Blake Bortles (146), Derek Carr (159), Ryan Tannehill (163), Case Keenum (164), and Eli Manning (199). Then again, Trubisky is well outside of the top-10, with the likes of Marcus Mariota (136), Dak Prescott (135), Jared Goff (134), Matt Ryan (131), and Jimmy Garoppolo (125) as the five quarterbacks immediately ahead of him.
You’ll find running back Jordan Howard a few spots down the pecking order at No. 41. Howard’s fantasy stock has dipped a bit compared to this time last year. This list has him ranked 19th among running backs – wedged between Baltimore’s Alex Collins and Philadelphia’s Jay Ajayi. Maybe it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Howard’s fantasy value takes a tumble now that there will be more of a focus on implementing the forward pass with Matt Nagy calling the shots.
Tarik Cohen is the third Bears player to crack the top-100. Cohen had value as a FLEX player last year because of how often he was targeted in the passing game. And while he still figures to play a key role in Chicago’s offense, he isn’t expected to get the volume of targets he did last season.
Tight end Trey Burton (104) and rookie wideout Anthony Miller (151) also make the list. Burton figures to jump into a role as the team’s top pass-catcher at his position and ideally slides into being the team’s primary “U” tight end. Miller could be one of the league’s top rookie wideouts from a fantasy perspective. Ratcliffe believes Miller is in a prime spot to earn a role as the Bears’ WR2 this season.
Unless you had Howard or were ahead of the curve on the Cameron Meredith bandwagon, owning a Bears player was tough during the John Fox era. Things figure to be different with Nagy implementing a new offense. Here’s hoping the Bears offense racks up points on the field, which will help you pile them up in your weekly leagues.
