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Chicago Bears: 30 greatest players in franchise history

By Conor Dorney

Walter Payton #34, Running Back for the Chicago Bears during his final game in the American Football Conference West game against the Los Angeles Raiders on 27 December 1987 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, California, United States. The Bears won the game 6 - 3. Visions of Sport. (Photo by Mike Powell/Allsport/Getty Images)
Walter Payton #34, Running Back for the Chicago Bears during his final game in the American Football Conference West game against the Los Angeles Raiders on 27 December 1987 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, California, United States. The Bears won the game 6 - 3. Visions of Sport. (Photo by Mike Powell/Allsport/Getty Images) /
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The Chicago Bears are steeped in tradition, but just who are the 30 best players to ever put on their uniform?

As the NFL’s oldest franchise, the Chicago Bears have a rich legacy of outstanding players and coaches going back many decades. They have gone through their share of ups and downs, but there’s no denying that some of the greatest players in NFL history have just so happened to don the navy and orange.

Here at FanSided, we like to start the conversation on just who some of the best players to ever put on a Bears uniform are and how some of them continue to impact the organization and the NFL as a whole to this day.

As with all of my writing, this piece is 100 percent subjective and was created through an extremely scientific, highly classified process that guarantees every person who stumbles upon it will fall in love.

If you happen to disagree with some of the players or rankings on this list, no need to worry. Civil, reasonable discourse in response to disagreement is exactly what the Internet was designed to do.

*crickets*

Well, anyway, without further ado…I present my list of the greatest 30 players in Bears franchise history. Enjoy!

player. 57. . QB. 1982-88. Jim McMahon. 30

While he may not have the typical statistical resume of a player you’re used to seeing on “top players in franchise history” lists, what Bears slideshow is complete without at least one mention of Jim McMahon.

Hailing from BYU, the Bears made McMahon the fifth overall selection in the 1982 NFL Draft and he would eventually win the starting quarterback job by the beginning of his rookie season. He was, well, entertaining from the very start of his tenure with the organization, notably showing up to his first press conference with a cold beer in hand.

He would go on to ruffle more than one feather over the course of his career but there’s no denying that he brought a swagger to a Chicago team that was full of it in the 1980’s. As you may well know by now, McMahon was an integral part in what is indisputably the greatest piece of music ever recorded:

He may still be the punky quarterback known as McMahon, but he’s also a Super Bowl champion and part of our list of the top-30 greatest Bears of all-time. Keep on shufflin’.

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