If there is one position group that the Chicago Bears always seem to get right, it's linebackers. One could form almost an entire 'Mount Rushmore' of great NFL linebackers using just Bears players. With that in mind, it was a shock to see the legendary Brian Urlacher snubbed from ESPN's list of the best players ever from each draft slot.
Drafted ninth overall in the 2000 NFL Draft, Urlacher went on to win the Defensive Rookie of the Year award, Defensive Player of the Year in 2005, and five All-Pro nods in a 13-year career (12 if you don't want to count the 2009 season in which he suffered a season-ending injury in the first game). He was also an eight-time Pro Bowler, and of the five seasons in which he wasn't a Pro Bowler, three were shortened by at least four games due to injuries.
But ESPN's list did not include Urlacher as the greatest ninthth overall pick of all time. That honor went to Bruce Matthews, the offensive lineman for the Houston Oilers (later the Tennessee Titans).
I don't mean to disparage Matthews' brilliant career, and I'm not going to. He was an iron man of epic proportions, starting an incredible 293 games across 19 seasons while earning 14 Pro Bowls and 9 All-Pro awards.
His place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame is well-earned. But was he really a more impactful player than Urlacher?
I give my answer as a resounding 'no'. One can imagine the Oilers/Titans of the '80s and '90s without Matthews. They may have even been just as good as they were without him. But can you imagine the 2000s Bears sans Urlacher? He was the captain of that defense, which was at times one of the greatest defensive units in NFL history. Without No. 54 and his famous barbed wire tattoo in the middle, it's difficult to say whether the Bears would have even made an appearance in Super Bowl XLI.
Plus, at his peak, Urlacher collected more impactful awards than Matthews, including Defensive Rookie of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year. That may be a little unfair to Matthews on account of his position; offensive linemen never win Rookie/Player of the Year awards, after all. But this bias is just part of how we evaluate players and their place in history, fair or not.
With the new Protector of the Year award set to be debuted in 2025 for the best offensive lineman, this kind of bias may in future years be rectified somewhat, but there's nothing to be done about the past.
As aforementioned, none of this is to say that Matthews is undeserving of his place on ESPN's rankings. This whole article gives me 'Jordan vs LeBron' vibes, anyway. No one serious would try to downplay LeBron's long and storied career, but give me Jordan's prime any day of the week. In the same way, I'll take the insane heights of Urlacher's prime over Matthews' impressive 19-year run when it comes to determining the greatest 9th overall pick ever.
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