WCG’s lead draft analyst tells you why his 21st century Bears fantasy team is the best.
After the 2024 NFL Draft, several of us at Windy City Gridiron participated in a 21st-century all-Chicago Bears fantasy draft.
What does that mean? Well, eight of our staffers got together in a randomized snake draft to build out a roster in all three phases consisting only of Bears players from the year 2000 to the present. Some people will argue the 21st century starts in 2001, but they can go to hell. It was a fun exercise, both in trying to build a complete roster and in going down memory lane.
Back in 2018, we ran a similar exercise with every player to ever suit up for the Bears. This time, though, our time constraint allowed us to really get into the weeds and get creative — or in some cases, depressing — with our selections.
This process consisted of 26 rounds, with 12 people on offense, 12 people on defense, and two special teamers. This allowed us some flexibility for our 11th man on the field, and consolidating kicker and punter into one position prevented any of us from having to select players who only played a game or two for the Bears.
All eight of us will break down our cases for having the best team in our draft. Then, we’ll take to a vote in a poll. That doesn’t matter, though, because my team — The Nefarious Jakesters — is the best. Here’s why.
Offense
QB: Josh McCown (Round 14)
I found myself unamused by Chicago’s lackluster quarterback history. Jay Cutler was the only QB that I would’ve taken in Round 1, as much of a fan I am of Caleb Williams. I built out the rest of my team and waited things out for one of Kyle Orton or McCown to get drafted, and once Orton went before me, I had my answer. McCown is the Bears’ single-season passer rating leader with 109.0 in 2013. He was genuinely great in Chicago, throwing 13 touchdowns to just one interception that year. An accurate game-manager was great value for me this late.
RB: James Allen (Round 19)
Once Bill crushed my dreams and took Khalil Herbert in Round 14, I knew I’d prefer to wait for a running back. That said, Allen rushed for 1,120 yards in 2000 — that’s more than Matt Forte (who went Round 1) had in six of his 8 seasons with the Bears. Allen was also a solid pass-catching back, giving me a reliable checkdown option.
RB: Cedric Benson (Round 20)
Benson never lived up to the expectations of being a top-5 pick, but he was still pretty productive as a rotational back in Chicago. He topped 600 rushing yards in each of 2006 and 2007, and he tallied 10 rushing touchdowns in that span. As the power back to Allen’s speed back, he forms a respectable one-two punch.
WR: Alshon Jeffery (Round 3)
One half of the best wide receiver duo the Bears have ever had (until DJ Moore and Keenan Allen take the field), Jeffery was a dominant wide receiver during his time with the Bears. From 2013 to 2014, he had 174 receptions, 2,554 yards and 17 receiving touchdowns, making the Pro Bowl in 2013 and solidifying himself as one of the best weapons in the NFL. Hell, he was on pace to shatter 1,400 receiving yards in 2015 before he got hurt, and he still had over 800 receiving yards in injury-plagued 2015 and 2016. He was a bonafide WR1 for the Bears, and since health isn’t a factor here, I’m taking one of the best weapons the team has ever had.
WR: Muhsin Muhammad (Round 10)
He wasn’t a Pro Bowler in Chicago like he was in Carolina, but Muhammad was still a damn good player and one of the best wide receivers the team has had since the turn of the millennium. In three seasons, he had 334 catches for 2,183 yards and 12 touchdowns. Even with bad QB play around him, he still served as a respectable WR1 in 2005 and 2006. Given the Bears’ weak history at receiver — and comparing him to some of my colleagues’ selected WR2s — I’m honestly grateful I got Muhammad as late as I did.
TE: Cole Kmet (Round 6)
There are three impact tight ends the Bears have had since 2000: Greg Olsen, Martellus Bennett, and Cole Kmet. While Desmond Clark was a reliable contributor and Zach Miller had some nice plays, none had the high-level impact Kmet has had for Chicago. With the first two aforementioned impact players long gone, I wanted to swoop up Kmet before the well ran dry. He has topped 50 receptions and 500 receiving yards each of the last three seasons, most recently coming off of a career-high 73 catches for 719 yards, adding 6 touchdowns in the process. He’s a reliable security blanket and a good red-zone threat.
LT: Braxton Jones (Round 12)
With Chicago’s rocky offensive tackle play over the years, I wanted to secure someone I knew was a solid player. Leno, Tait and Bushrod all went before me, but I feel as though I got someone not at all far from those players in Jones, and I did so much later. In his first two seasons in the NFL, he’s had PFF pass-blocking grades above 70.0 both times. As far as consistent blocking performances go, he’s miles ahead of some of the other left tackles drafted in this exercise.
LG: Ruben Brown (Round 7)
Brown was a rock-solid starter for the Bears for four seasons, playing and starting in 45 games in the Windy City. He had his best year in 2006, when he made it to the Pro Bowl as a key catalyst for an NFC title-winning team. With this pick, I’m one of only two teams with multiple Pro Bowlers on my offensive line, and that’s something I’m extremely happy with.
C: Brian de la Puente (Round 16)
It’s tough to draft a center when Olin Kreutz and Cody Whitehair held the position down for so long. I got creative with my pick in de la Puente, who started 6 games in relief for Roberto Garza in 2014. In the short amount of time he played, he was one of PFF’s highest-graded centers in the NFL. He suffered an ankle injury in November that ended his season, but in the short amount of time he played for Chicago, he made a massive impact.
RG: Kyle Long (Round 4)
Save for Olin Kreutz, Long is the best offensive lineman the Bears have had in the 21st century, for my money. His run of three straight Pro Bowls to kick off his NFL career was impressive, and he earned a second-team All-Pro nomination for his play in 2014. Hell, he even made a difference when Chicago kicked him outside to right tackle, an unnatural position for him. Injuries slowed him down eventually, but when healthy, he was one of the very few star offensive linemen the team has had in recent years.
RT: John St. Clair (Round 18)
St. Clair was a 16-game starter at tackle for the Bears in 2008, and he filled it at both tackle spots and at guard during his time with the team. Plus, he scored a receiving touchdown against the Chiefs in 2007! There aren’t many good offensive tackles the Bears have had since 2000, and St. Clair is at least a decent enough option to where I feel like my tackle tandem stacks up well against my peers.
OL: Kiran Amegadjie (Round 24)
Eligible offensive linemen, here we come! I wasn’t planning on drafting a sixth offensive lineman, but Amegadjie just made sense here since other rookies from this class had already been selected much earlier. He’s a physical specimen whom I had a second-round grade on this year, and he likely would’ve gone top-50 if not for injury. Imagine what you could do with him in the run game outside of a tackle.
Defense
DE: Khalil Mack (Round 1)
Mack made it to the Pro Bowl in three of his four years with the Bears. He was a first-team All-Pro in 2018 and placed second in the DPOY voting. He had 36.0 sacks in four years, a number that in itself is impressive just off of how often he got double-teamed. Mack was a bonafide game-changer for the Bears’ defense and was a key catalyst for their NFC North title run that year, as well as the star of the show every other year he played for the team. Chicago hasn’t had too many superstars in the 21st century, but Mack is one of them. I needed to take him.
DT: Keith Traylor (Round 11)
At 337 pounds, Tractor Traylor was a beast to behold up the middle. He was a certified run-stuffer with 71 tackles and 17 tackles for a loss between 2001 and 2002, and he had a forced fumble in each of his three seasons with the Bears. You’re going to him as your traditional nose tackle type, and with how powerful he was, you have to double-team him on run downs, freeing up chances for other defensive linemen to feast 1-on-1.
DT: Bryan Robinson (Round 17)
As a six-year starter for the Bears — with four of those years coming in the 21st century — I’m a bit surprised Robinson fell this far. He had 9 sacks from 2000 to 2001, and in his four eligible seasons for this criteria, he had 5 forced fumbles and 25 pass deflections, giving him very high value batting away passes at the line of scrimmage.
DT: Jay Ratliff (Round 25)
Things ended poorly for Ratliff in Chicago, but his 2014 season was very good in the Windy City. In just 11 games, he had 6.5 sacks as a defensive tackle with 37 tackles, 33 pressures, 10 tackles for a loss and 14 quarterback hits. What’s crazy is this: he was a four-time Pro Bowler in Dallas, and his career high was 7.5 sacks. He came just one sack shy of tying that with his 2014 campaign with the Bears, and he played five fewer games. That’s an elite pass-rushing defensive tackle; how did he fall here?
DE: Pernell McPhee (Round 15)
Real ones remember what McPhee did in 2015. In 14 games, he had 6.0 sacks, 53 tackles, 9 tackles for a loss, 18 quarterback hits and a forced fumble. He ranked as PFF’s seventh-best edge rusher at 87.7 with how consistently he pressured opposing quarterbacks that year, even with a lackluster defensive line around him. He had the NFL’s best pass-rush productivity rate at his position, creating 63 total pressures on just 296 pass-rush snaps. With Mack rushing off the other edge and some beefy boys up the middle? McPhee would feast.
LB: Lance Briggs (Round 2)
The Bears have seen a lot of strong linebacker play in their history in general, not just the 21st century. I knew I had to end up with one of their stars. Luckily, I ended up getting Briggs available to me in Round 2. The 6-time Pro Bowler and 3-time All-Pro is tied for second in Pro Bowl appearances the Bears have had since 2000, and he was a consistent 100-tackle getter and one of the best linebackers in the NFL. Easy choice for me here.
LB: Jerrell Freeman (Round 13)
Freeman was a one-year wonder of sorts, but boy, what a year it was. In 12 games in 2016, he had 110 tackles, 5 pass deflections and 7 tackles for a loss. Had he played all 16 games, he would’ve placed fourth in the NFL that year. He led all linebackers with a 93.9 PFF grade that year; he was a monster for a short amount of time and doesn’t get talked about enough.
CB: Tim Jennings (Round 5)
Jennings turned into one of the best free agent signings Jerry Angelo made as GM of the Bears. A respectable depth piece for the Colts, Jennings turned into a star in Chicago. He was a two-time Pro Bowler, a second-team All-Pro and a dangerous playmaker who finished his time with the Bears with 16 interceptions, 58 pass deflections, 5 forced fumbles and three pick-sixes in 5 years. His best year came in 2012, when he had a whopping 9 interceptions and 21 pass breakups.
CB: Nathan Vasher (Round 8)
Fun fact: since 2000, the Bears have had five cornerbacks make it to the Pro Bowl. Another fun fact: I have two of them. Vasher tallied 16 interceptions, 33 pass deflections and two pick-sixes in his first three seasons in Chicago. He was a Pro Bowler, a second-team All-Pro, and sixth player in DPOY voting in 2005. Injuries derailed his career, but he was a bonafide ballhawk who would feast in this secondary.
NB: Ricky Manning Jr. (Round 21)
As the nickel cornerback for the Bears’ 2006 defense, Manning was able to feast, displaying a career year even after three strong seasons with the Panthers. He had 5 interceptions in 2006, as well as 10 pass deflections, a pick-six and 53 total tackles. Though his follow-up season wasn’t as strong, he would benefit from playing alongside two star cornerbacks with a fierce defensive front ahead of him, especially with the generally weak receiver depth my opposition has.
FS: Chris Harris (Round 9)
Aside from Mike Brown and Eddie Jackson, the gang decided to back off with a generally weak century of safety play. However, they missed out on a playmaking safety with a second-team All-Pro nomination to his name in Harris. He had two stints in Chicago, tallying 5 interceptions, 13 pass deflections and 111 tackles in his first two seasons. After a stint with the Panthers, Harris came back as a second-team All-Pro for the Bears in 2010 with 5 interceptions, 7 pass deflections and 70 tackles that year alone. A ballhawk who could lay the hammer down, I firmly believe his presence gives me an edge over many of my contemporaries.
SS: Kevin Payne (Round 22)
Payne led the Bears in 2008 with 4 interceptions, adding on 7 pass deflections and 89 tackles in the process. Nagging injuries affected his 2009 season, and he was traded soon after. However, he proved that, when healthy, he could be a positive force for Chicago’s defense, and he was certainly a better player than many of the other starters they trotted out at safety in the years that followed. I’ll take it, with how late I drafted him!
Special teams
K/P: Pat O’Donnell (Round 23)
Robbie Gould is the standard for kicking in Chicago lore, Brad Maynard for punting, while Cairo Santos and Tory Taylor seem to be the future, respectively. That said, I was surprised O’Donnell fell as far as he did. He was a steady punter for the Bears for 8 seasons, fighting through windy lakefront weather to carve out a nice career for himself in the league.
LS: Patrick Scales (Round 26)
The last pick for my team was the special teamer, and star returners like Devin Hester, Cordarrelle Patterson and Tarik Cohen all went early. I’m a bit surprised Patrick Mannelly fell to Round 19, and I’m equally surprised that his successor almost went undrafted. Scales is entering his ninth year as Chicago’s long snapper, proving to be as consistent as they come snapping the ball. He’s survived two head coaching changes and has never been a problem during his time with the team.
Here’s a link to the full results of our draft.