In their most successful stretch of recent times, the Chicago Bears won the NFC North three times in a six-season span (2005-2010) under head coach Lovie Smith, with two NFC Championship Game appearances and a Super Bowl appearance.
That run was spearheaded by a strong defense, as Smith brought his roots in the "Tampa-2" scheme to Chicago and found players who fit that scheme. The Bears' defense was notoriously opportunistic, as they overcame what was often a lackluster offense/lackluster quarterback play to turn the momentum of games.
Playing linebacker at a high level for a long time in Chicago gives you a special place in the minds of Bears fans. From Bill George to Dick Butkus to Mike Singletary to Brian Urlacher, that legendary legacy extends through much of franchise history.
Urlacher was of course a driving force for the Bears' defense throughout Smith's tenure as head coach, equally adept as a force against the run and as a coverage linebacker who could erase passing windows in a zone-based defensive scheme.
Elite Bears' linebacker duo gets props on unique list
NFL.com draft analyst Eric Edholm is moving through every position to tab the five best draft values of this millennium (since 2000). Two former Bears made his list at linebacker, starting with Urlacher, despite him being the ninth overall pick in the 2000 draft, at No. 4.
"A top-10 pick as a steal? Hear us out."
"Urlacher remains the only current Hall of Famer from the 2000 draft class, although Tom Brady will join him the moment he's eligible. Outside of those two, however, it's a relatively star-less group. Of the eight players taken ahead of Urlacher, some became solid to good players and some were busts. If we did a re-draft of this class today, Brady would go first overall, and I think there's a strong case to put Urlacher No. 2."
Edholm noted how there were some doubts about Urlacher coming into the league, as a college safety for a bad New Mexico team in the Mountain West, and how he didn't start the first two games of his career. From there he started every game he played in his career, including all 16 games in a season nine times and earning eight Pro Bowl nods along the way.
Urlacher extended the Bears' legacy at middle linebacker into this century, and he went into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2018.
Three years later, in the third round of the 2003 draft (No. 68 overall), the Bears drafted another linebacker who rounded out Edholm's list: Lance Briggs.
"Briggs often found himself in Urlacher's shadow nationally, but Bears fans knew then -- and still remember -- just how special he was. In any hypothetical re-draft of the 2003 class, Briggs almost certainly would have been a first-rounder, even with a wealth of defensive talent that included Troy Polamalu, Terrell Suggs and Kevin Williams."
"Like Urlacher, Briggs was an ideal fit in Lovie Smith's Tampa-2 defense, unleashing his speed and rare instincts to rack up tackles (1,181 in his career), tackles for loss (97), interceptions (16, including an eyebrow-raising five pick-sixes) and forced fumbles (16). It's no shock he was first- or second-team All-Pro three times and was named to seven straight Pro Bowls."
Urlacher and Briggs overlapped for the majority of their careers (2003-2012), giving the Bears the best linebacker tandem in the league over much of that stretch as they both spent their entire careers in Chicago. That eight and 67 players went before them in their respective drafts absolutely meets the definition of being a value pick.