Everything about the NFL Draft is subjective, and when it kicks off Thursday night, each team will have its own preferences and needs. Even in hindsight, it can be difficult to say which picks were better or worse than others.
The postscript on missed picks depends on how high the selection was, who else was available and what ripple effect the error had on the franchise.
In the Bears’ case, Mitch Trubisky was a brutal mistake at No. 2 overall in 2017 in large part because general manager Ryan Pace passed Patrick Mahomes. Taking Justin Fields at No. 11 in 2021 wasn’t as much of a whiff, but the price of trading up to get him torpedoed successor Ryan Poles’ draft capital the next year.
It’s virtually the same calculus on the hits. The Bears have drafted 19 Hall of Famers in their history, but a case could be made that finding stalwart left tackle Charles Leno in the seventh round at No. 246 overall — 10 picks from the end — was the most impressive pick in franchise history.
Understanding that, here are the Bears’ three best first-round picks of this millennium:
1. Linebacker Brian Urlacher, No. 9 overall in 2000
Urlacher’s career was exactly what a team wants when it drafts this high: a 13-year starter, eight Pro Bowls, four All-Pro selections, the star of a Super Bowl team and a first-ballot Hall of Famer. The Sun-Times ranked him the 10th-best player in team history when it did the top 100 for the 100th season. That works.
His first season out of New Mexico, Urlacher won Defensive Rookie of the Year and just kept getting better. He finished fifth in MVP voting in Year 2. If not for injuries, he would’ve done even more.
2. Linebacker Roquan Smith, No. 8 overall in 2018
Smith, from Georgia, might end up putting together a first-ballot Hall of Fame career, too, though it’ll be in a different uniform. Still, the fact that Poles offloaded Smith to the Ravens in 2022 doesn’t negate that this was the best pick of Pace’s tenure.
3. Tight end Greg Olsen, No. 31 overall in 2007
The Bears only kept Olsen for four seasons, but the totality of his career made him a great find out of Miami near the end of Round 1. He had three consecutive 1,000-yard seasons and Pro Bowl selections for the Panthers and finished with more yards receiving than any player in his draft class other than Hall of Fame wide receiver Calvin Johnson.
And now, their three worst:
1. Quarterback Mitch Trubisky, No. 2 overall in 2017
Not only was this the worst draft mistake in Bears history, it will go down as one of the biggest in sports because 10 after Pace took Trubisky out of North Carolina, the Chiefs landed Mahomes. He also passed on three-time Pro Bowl quarterback Deshaun Watson, who was a rising star before off-field transgressions sunk his career (the Bears were lucky to avoid that).
One more factor that makes it sting just a little more: Pace traded up to do this.
2. Wide receiver Kevin White, No. 7 overall in 2015
White, from West Virginia, lasted just three seasons with the team, started five games, caught 25 passes and never scored a touchdown in a Bears uniform. Four of the next eight players picked after him went on to make at least one Pro Bowl.
3. Wide receiver David Terrell, No. 8 overall in 2001
Michigan’s Terrell was better than White, but was still out of the NFL after just five seasons. His best year was 2004, when he caught 42 passes for 699 yards and a touchdown, which isn’t nearly what a team envisions when it takes a receiver in the top 10. Koren Robinson went one pick after Terrell and had twice the career.
