This article is part of our NFL Observations series.
For Monday's show on SiriusXM Fantasy, Liss and I decided to continue the Chicago theme and compete in an All-Time Chicago Bears draft. We thought it would be ideal to bring in ardent Bears fan and fellow host on the channel Jeff Mans. We modeled the draft in the same format as our Green Bay Packers draft that Tom Kessenich did with us earlier. Each of us were to draft a QB, two RB, two WR, a TE, two Flex players and a kicker. It's important to distinguish that you only get what the player did in his career with the Bears, and not anywhere else. I tend to think that factor gets ignored in the court of public opinion - and that's something that we've evolved our draft strategies over time to that account.
The Bears are a historic franchise, but it's not one rich in standout offensive performers, especially in the passing game. The best quarterback, at least statistically, is Jay Cutler, though nobody confuses him as an all-time great. Probably the most storied quarterback is Sid Luckman, and if you era-adjust he's probably better statistically than Cutler too. We pondered on the broadcast whether the Bears' locale has a lot to do with their lack of historical passing game, but it's pretty hard to square that when you compare them to the Packers.
As always, we gave our guest first choice on where to draft, and Jeff took the obvious choice and went first with Walter Payton. Arguably it's a one-player draft, as this was the most obvious first pick in perhaps all of our drafts so far. Liss went second and went with Gale Sayers, another obvious choice in terms of name recognition and per-season production, if not cumulative production. This was a theme in Liss's draft - he counts on you not digging into the numbers. I went positional scarcity with the first of my two picks, taking Mike Ditka as the clear top tight end, and pairing him with Matt Forte.
Here are the full results of our draft, first in overall order, followed by a per-team breakdown.
| RD | Team | Player |
| 1 | Mans | Walter Payton |
| 1 | Liss | Gale Sayers |
| 1 | Erickson | Mike Ditka |
| 2 | Erickson | Matt Forte |
| 2 | Liss | Sid Luckman |
| 2 | Mans | Neal Anderson |
| 3 | Mans | Johnny Morris |
| 3 | Liss | Bronko Nagurski |
| 3 | Erickson | Thomas Jones |
| 4 | Erickson | Alshon Jeffery |
| 4 | Liss | Brandon Marshall |
| 4 | Mans | Willie Gault |
| 5 | Mans | Jim McMahon |
| 5 | Liss | Red Grange |
| 5 | Erickson | Marty Booker |
| 6 | Erickson | Allen Robinson |
| 6 | Liss | Devin Hester |
| 6 | Mans | Greg Olsen |
| 7 | Mans | Curtis Conway |
| 7 | Liss | Robbie Gould |
| 7 | Erickson | Kevin Butler |
| 8 | Erickson | Harlon Hill |
| 8 | Liss | Tarik Cohen |
| 8 | Mans | Tom Waddle |
| 9 | Mans | Paul Edinger |
| 9 | Liss | George Halas |
| 9 | Erickson | Jay Cutler |
Results By Team:
| Pos | Mans | Liss | Erickson |
| QB | Jim McMahon | Sid Luckman | Jay Cutler |
| RB | Walter Payton | Gale Sayers | Matt Forte |
| RB | Neal Anderson | Bronko Nagurski | Thomas Jones |
| WR | Johnny Morris | Brandon Marshall | Alshon Jeffery |
| WR | Willie Gault | Devin Hester | Marty Booker |
| TE | Greg Olsen | George Halas | Mike Ditka |
| Flex | Curtis Conway | Red Grange | Allen Robinson |
| Flex | Tom Waddle | Tarik Cohen | Harlon Hill |
| K | Paul Edinger | Robbie Gould | Kevin Butler |
Do yourself a favor and look at the production totals from Red Grange and George Halas. Seriously, they are great names, but not for what they did on the field for the Bears.
Who had the best draft? Who did we leave out in the draft? Let us know in the comments!
