'14 Player Rankings, Defense: 50-41

— -- ESPN.com is ranking NFL players and counting them down (follow on Twitter --  @ESPNNFL) from No. 100 to No. 1 on offense and on defense, 10 per day for 10 days. The top 10 on both sides of the ball will be revealed on Friday, Aug. 29.

What is #NFLRank?

#NFLrank is the Twitter hashtag to use if you want to get involved in the discussion or just follow along.

You can also follow along here: @ESPNNFL (NFL on ESPN) and on Facebook.

How did we rank the players?

We polled 90 experts to rate each player on a 0-to-10 scale, with 10 being the best regardless of position in the NFL. Ties, as denoted by an asterisk, were broken by determining which player had more ballots with the higher number (if players are tied, the player with three 10s is ranked higher than the player with two 10s; if the tied players had the same amount of highest numbers -- each with two 10s -- we moved to the next number: three 9s beats two 9s).

Here is the full list of voters from ESPN.com, ESPN TV, ESPN The Magazine, ESPN Insider (including Football Outsiders and Pro Football Focus), ESPN Fantasy, ESPN locals and ESPN Stats & Information.

Cushing has missed 20 games over the last two seasons, but the Texans defense has been among the league's best with him on the field. Since 2012, the Texans have allowed 4.7 yards per play with Cushing on the field, which would be the lowest average in the league during that span.

-- ESPN Stats & Information  ( @ESPNStatsInfo)